The Champion's
by Ferosh
Summary: Two of the Triwizard Tournament champion's become very close. CedricHarry slash. Please review. Rating changed for safety!
1. Crack the Egg

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.

Please read and review!

Draco Malfoy puffed out his chest towards Harry who was walking past. 'Oh, look,' he jeered. 'It's stinky Potter.' He tapped his badge so that it changed to a bright shade of green and Harry's face could be seen above the lettering _Potter Stinks. _

Harry ignored them. He'd been ignoring everyone who flashed those badges towards him. He adjusted his bag into a more comfortable position on his back and continued down the corridor, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground. He breathed in deeply as he reached the fresh air outside, he relaxed a little, and glad there was hardly any one out here.

Harry glanced at his watch; he swore quietly and ran a hand through his hair. Those bloody Syltherins had made him late for class. He broke into a light jog and went down the stairs.

'Hey Harry!' a voice called out to him. Harry stopped and looked behind, back up the stairs for the speaker. He saw Cedric Diggory running down the stairs after him, his dark hair blowing about his face in the wind. Harry's stomach gave a funny little jolt, and he felt his face flush. Harry fancied Cedric; he had for a while now. Ever since the beginning of this year at Hogwarts, when he and Cedric had been chosen as Champion's for Hogwarts, not that Harry had wanted to be one.

'Hey, Ced-Cedric,' Harry stuttered, hoping the red tinge around his cheeks would go away. 'What's up?'

'I just wanted to thank you for the advice, about the Dragon,' Cedric said, shuffling nervously.

'How's the burn?' Harry asked, he remembered that Cedric had been burnt during the task, and hated the sight of it on Cedric's skin and the pain it had caused him.

Cedric ran a hand along his smooth face, grinning. 'It's all gone now, thanks to Madame Pomfrey,' he added in his quiet voice. 'Uh, what I really wanted to say was -'

Harry's heart was pounding in his chest now, what had Cedric really wanted to say him? Did Cedric know Harry fancied him? What would he say?

'Have you solved the egg yet?' Cedric said finally.

Harry tried hard to hide his disappointment. 'No, no I haven't.'

'Take your egg to the Prefects' Bathroom,' Cedric instructed Harry giving him the password. 'And just mull things over in the hot water.' He winked at Harry and then was on his way.

_Cedric winked at me_, Harry grinned happily to himself, _but why does he want me to take a bath with my egg?_ Harry shook his head, and decided he'd go tonight. Now, he had to get to class, he was already late.

* * *

Harry struggled through the three remaining classes of the day; his mind was continuously slipping back to Cedric. His smile, his grey eyes, and that tall figure. The last class of the day was Potions, and Harry was more than happy to sit and day-dream for the entire lesson. Snape on the other hand, wasn't thrilled.

'Potter,' he sneered, walking over to Harry's desk and slamming his fist down on the wood. Harry's eyes snapped open with a start and the smile vanished from his face. 'Day dreaming, are we Potter?'

'Probably about winning the Triwizard Tournament,' Draco jeered. When ever Harry was being told off Draco always put in his own opinion, and had often given Snape suggestions for Harry's punishments.

'No, Professor, just thinking about the potion,' Harry said, avoiding Snape's eyes.

Snape raised his eyebrows and looked into Harry's cauldron at the foot of the desk. 'Ten points from Gryffindor, there's nothing in here, Potter.'

Harry scowled as he walked away and muttered something rude under his breathe.

'You all right Harry?' Ron asked, leaning over and passing him his notes for the potion.

'Peachy,' Harry replied, reading over the notes.

'Are you fretting about the egg again?' Hermione butted in. 'I thought you'd finished that off weeks ago!'

'Nearly cracked it, nearly cracked it,' Harry said to both of them. 'How long until this class is over?'

Ron looked down at his watch, 'Five minutes.'

'Great!' Hermione said happily, 'I'm going to the library, and Harry you should probably come too.'

Harry nodded absent mindedly and when the bell rang he let himself be dragged off by his bushy haired friend. In the library it became clear the Hermione didn't want to study or anything, she wanted to talk.

'Here is he again!' she hissed at Harry, who was wide awake once more and had stopped day dreaming for the time being.

'Who?' he asked stupidly, as he stared around the nearly empty library.

'Viktor Krum.'

'Oh, don't they have a library on the Durmstrang ship?'

'Yes, they do!' she hissed again.

'Then why is he here?' Harry asked. 'And why couldn't Ron come with us?'

'You know how Ron gets when Krum is around, babbles on about Quidditch and never stops for hours!' Hermione said exasperatedly. 'I don't know why he's here, all he does is study.'

'No,' Harry said in mock shock. 'Studies in a library, that's heinous.'

'You know what I mean!'

'No, Hermione, I don't know what you mean,' he said grinning. 'Look, I'm going to do some more work on the egg, ok? See you at dinner.'

* * *

When Harry woke, he was lying in his bed, clutching the egg to his stomach. He blinked slowly, and sat up rubbing his eyes. _What time is it?_ He wondered, looking over the clock. _12pm, I'd better go to the prefects' bathroom now, I promised myself I'd do work on it tonight. _He grabbed his invisibility from his trunk and hurried out of the common towards the bathroom.

The Prefects' Bathroom was amazing. Everything was built from the same kind of beautifully polished stone; many of the windows were made of stain glass and depicted Mermaids and other aquatic life forms. The windows were of course moving, and Harry noticed a half naked mermaid blush, and draw her long blonde hair around her body. Harry took of his cloak and draped it over his arm and as made his way towards to the bath. The bath was certainly the most amazing thing in this room; it was huge, bigger than an ordinary spa pool. It was created from the same stone as the rest of the room, as Harry got closer he noticed the bath was already full and that someone was relaxing inside it. He gasped a little, and turned around to make his way back out of the room.

'Harry,' that familiar quiet voice said his name second time today. Harry slowly turned back around to face Cedric. He felt that blush creep around his cheeks again; Cedric was naked, though the bubbles hid his lower body.

'Sorry, Cedric, I didn't know you were going to be in here tonight, just taking the advice you gave me,' Harry babbled, his grasp tightening on the egg.

'It's ok,' Cedric grinned at him. 'Do you still want – I mean, the bath is big enough for two people. I'm here for the egg as well.'

'You mean you haven't cracked it yet?'

'I have, I just wanted to get more information out of it.'

Harry nodded, and blushed again as he began pulling of his school robes. Cedric turned his back on him, turning a little scarlet as well. 'I won't look,' Harry heard him mumble.

Once he'd removed all his clothing and dumped them in a pile beside the bath, along with his cloak, Harry stepped into the water. He sighed happily as the hot water rushed around him, and the bubbles covered him up as he sank lower. He was sitting directly across from Cedric, who was facing him again when he'd heard Harry get in.

'Enchanted water,' Cedric said. He swam closer to Harry and sat beside, with a little room in between them, Cedric had brought his egg with him. 'Never gets cold, and the bubbles don't vanish either.'

Harry grinned, he wasn't blushing as much as before, but his stomach was still doing summersaults when ever he looked at Cedric. 'You have bubbles in your hair, Cedric,' Harry said.

'Oh,' Cedric grinned a little embarrassedly, and brushed them out.

'So, how did you work your egg out?' Harry asked.

'I opened it under the water,' he said, running his hands over his golden egg. 'Listen,' he added and motioned for Harry to put his head under the water along with him. Harry stared at Cedric's body under the water, the light from the stain glass windows was reflecting off him. Harry's attention was snapped away from Cedric as he opened his egg and an eerie tune echoed around the water.

_Come seek us where our voices sound,  
We cannot sing above the ground,  
And while you're searching, ponder this:  
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,  
An hour long you'll have to look,  
And to recover what we took,  
But past an hour - the prospect's black  
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back._

The song was soft and quiet, but also disturbing in how calm everything went when the egg's hint was given. Cedric suddenly snapped the egg shut and he and Harry burst to the surface of the water, gasping for breathe.

'What do you make of it?' Cedric asked him.

'So, someone is going to take something that we'll miss, and we have to find it,' Harry stated in clearer language than that the song had used.

'Yeah,' said Cedric. 'Any ideas on what took our something's?' he grinned.

Harry shook his head, and his eyes widened as Cedric leaned in closer to him and whispered in his ear. 'Merpeople.'

'There are mermaids in the lake?' Harry asked.

'Yeah,' the older boy said, leaning back against the rim of the bath.

They sat in silence for a while, each pondering what the egg had told them. Until Harry broke the silence by saying: 'How long ago did you crack the egg?'

'About two nights ago.'

'Well, thank you for telling me,' Harry said warmly.

'Not a problem, you helped me with the Dragons.'

'Do you know how you're going to breathe under water for an hour?'

Cedric smiled at Harry, grey eyes locked with green eyes. 'I'm giving everything away, I still want some competition.'

Harry leaned back against the rim like Cedric, and groaned. Putting his hands up to his head he said 'Urgh, I'll probably just drown.'

'You'll figure something out,' Cedric said.

Harry thanked Cedric and snuggled down into the hot water, relishing the warmth. Cedric was still staring at him, with his head cocked to one side. 'What?' Harry asked.

'You were looking, weren't you?'

'Looking at what?' Harry said, feeling the tips of his ears redden. Harry knew perfectly well what Cedric was talking about.

'Looking at me, under the water,' Cedric said, Harry was relieved he didn't sound mad, upset or even disgusted. When Harry didn't reply Cedric continued speaking. 'It's ok, Harry. I was looking at you too.'

'You were looking?' Harry gasped, staring at Cedric. 'But, I thought you were- that you were,'

Cedric interrupted him by saying, 'That I was straight?' he grinned widely at Harry. 'I thought you were too.'

'What made you realize I wasn't?'

'You were checking out Viktor Krum the other day,' he said.

Harry shook his head. 'You were standing behind him.'

The laughter on Cedric's face faltered a little bit at this comment, Harry saw Cedric's throat move as he swallowed. Harry reached over and brushed some strands of hair out of Cedric's face, the older boy took this as his opportunity and leaned in closer to Harry, who was blushing more than Ron ever had in his life. Cedric leaned down and pressed his lips to Harry's softly. Harry's eyes closed almost automatically, as he kissed Cedric back. Cedric's lips were smooth and soft compared to Harry's dry and chapped ones.

'Oh,' a small squeak came from the other side of the room. The boys quickly broke apart; there was a nervous look in Cedric's eyes as he searched for the person who'd made the noise. Moaning Myrtle was floating around at the other end of the bath tub, her eyes were wide with shock, and a confused smile was painted on her face. 'Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory, kissing in the prefects' bathroom!' she giggled hysterically and looped through the air. 'What will the other ghosts say when I tell them!'

'Myrtle!' Harry cried in shock. 'Please don't tell any one, please?' he asked, nearly begging her.

"Humph!' she said crossly. 'No one would believe ugly little cry baby Myrtle anyway, would they!?' she shrieked the lasts words, and splashed down the drain pipes and out of sight.

'She won't tell any one, will she?' Cedric asked, looking concerned.

'I-I don't think so.'

'Good,' Cedric purred, kissing Harry again before conjuring up himself a towel and stepping out of the bath, he quickly wrapped the towel around his body before Harry had a chance to look. 'I'll see you tomorrow, ok?'

Harry nodded. _WOW, _he thought to himself. _That certainly was a great bath. _

* * *


	2. Blow a Kiss

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART TWO**

'Who are you going to the ball with Hermione?' Ron asked. The trio was sitting in the Gryffindor common room; Harry and Ron were doing last minute homework, while Hermione was readinh a large book with a title that made no sense to Harry. Ron dipped his quill back into the ink, before asking again. 'Hermione, who are-'

'I heard you the first time Ron!' Hermione said in a frustrated tone. 'And I don't know who I'm going to the ball with, yet.'

'Urgh,' Ron groaned. 'No need to get all offensive, it was just a simple question.'

'I did _not _get all offensive!' Hermione replied hotly, scowling behind her book.

'Yes, you did.'

'No, I did not.'

'Yes-'

Harry interrupted them before the argument got out of control and resulted in the two screaming at each other about irrelevant things. 'Would you guys cool it?' he asked, 'I'm trying to concentrate.'

Hermione and Ron shared angry glances before banding together again in an effort to cheer Harry up. Harry had been under a lot of pressure recently; with the second task looming ahead and Draco's loyal and obedient gang of Slytherin's were pestering him wherever he went. And now there was added pressure to find someone to take to the Yule Ball with.

'Any ideas about who you're going with, Harry?' Hermione asked resting her hand on his shoulder, which Harry nearly immediately shrugged off. When Harry didn't answer, Hermione tried again. 'Any one you'd like to take to the ball?'

When he heard her question Harry's mind screamed _CEDRIC DIGGORY _inside his head, but that wasn't something he was quite ready to tell his two best friends yet. 'Ah, no ideas yet,' he gulped.

'We'd better hurry up before all the good ones are taken,' Ron frowned. 'Wouldn't want to be dateless.'

'Oh the horror,' Hermione said sarcastically.

'Actual yes, it would be horrifying!' Ron said his voice louder and Harry noticed another argument coming on because his ears were turning red. 'Can you imagine all the girls who hadn't got dates begging for a dance?' He shuddered.

Harry quickly butted again, before Hermione could respond. 'C'mon, were going to be late for Transfiguration.' Harry was in a rush to get going in case he missed Cedric walking past the class room, as he did every day after lunch. He thrust all of his books into his bag quickly, not caring if any of his parchment was squashed in his haste.

They all left the common room, along with surge of other Gryffindor's. Harry was walking in front of Hermione and Ron and setting a furious pace. As they walked along the second floor corridor a large girl from Ravenclaw grabbed Harry's arm, stopping him dead in his tracks.

Hermione raised her eye brows and Ron sniggered. 'See you in class Harry,' he said as he and Hermione continued to walk.

Harry desperately wanted to cry out after them, and make sure they stayed with him. His attention turned back towards the girl as she coughed loudly. Harry winced as he looked at her, god she wasn't easy on the eyes. She was, in fact nearly as ugly as Crabbe and Goyle.

'Hello, Harry!' the girl said quite happily, as if they'd talked thousands of times before hand. 'I was wondering if you'd like to take me to the ball.'

Harry's eyes widened. How could he say no to this girl without her knocking the living day lights out of him? 'Um, look, I'm really sorry, but there's someone else,' he shrugged and said again, 'I'm really sorry.'

The girl looked deeply embarrassed by his refusal; she didn't say a word to him but turned around and walked back up the hallway towards her waiting friends. Some glared angrily in his direction, but others patted her reassuringly on the back after she'd told them his answer.

'Saving yourself for someone?' Harry turned and saw Cedric leaning against the wall and smiling softly, completely alone as everyone was now in classes. Harry was grateful that he wasn't surrounded by his usual grabble of girls and friends.

Harry walked towards him. 'You, actually,' he said quietly.

Cedric looked downcast; he pulled his eyes away from Harry's and mumbled some excuse. 'Look, Harry, do you really think the school would understand if two champions went to the ball together?'

It was Harry's turn to look downcast, but he caught Cedric's eyes again and held the gaze. 'Yeah, I suppose people wouldn't be too happy, but others would have a field day.' He cringed as thought of what Rita Skeeter might put in the Daily Prophet if she found out.

'Harry, I do want to go with you,' he leaned down and kissed him on the lips, pulling Harry towards him with a hand around his waist, and the other in Harry's hair. When they broke apart Cedric added. 'But, I've agreed to go with Cho, and it's probably best if you go with a girl as well.'

'You're going with Cho?' Harry asked, his eyes narrowing. Harry had never liked Cho, they way she'd always hung onto to Cedric and he'd heard her bragging about him in corridors.

'Don't you like her?'

Harry blushed, and mumbled. 'I was jealous of her, always being with you.'

Cedric grinned at him. 'The famous Harry Potter was jealous?' he said it in a joking and kind way, not the way Malfoy used it. 'Harry Potter got jealous over me? Mm, that's a good story.'

Harry grinned back at Cedric, and swatted him playfully on the arm. 'Have you two really done all the stuff she says you have?'

Cedric laughed and shook his head. 'No, she's not my type.'

'Who is your type then? Maybe I'll become jealous of them more,' Harry joked.

'You are,' Cedric said, walking backwards away from Harry before he smiled and turned around fully.

Harry grabbed his hand before he disappeared around the corridor. 'Ced,' he smiled, and pulled on the other boys arm until his head was level with his. Harry kissed Cedric quickly, before pulling away and hurrying off to Transfiguration. Cedric was left standing there, smiling to himself.

'Potter, you're late,' Professor McGonagall informed him when he stepped inside the class room.

'Sorry Professor,' Harry said. 'It won't happen again.'

'I'm sure it won't Mr. Potter, but none the less; five points from Gryffindor.'

Harry groaned, but knew better than to argue with his Head of House.

'Hey, psst, Harry!' Ron was hissing his name, trying to get his attention.

'What?' Harry hissed back.

'Get away from that Ravenclaw girl?' he asked, grinning.

'Barely,' Harry replied, smiling to himself, and chewing on the end of his quill whilst Professor McGonagall talked. Harry felt Hermione's eyes on him, he turned to face her and saw that she was staring at him with an eyebrow raised. 'What?' he mouthed at her.

She smiled slyly back Harry, it was a knowing smile, one that made him feel uncomfortable. 'Nothing,' she mouthed back, that smile still on her face as she turned her attention back to the Professor.

* * *

Harry had grown steadily more panicked as the ball grew closer, and he and Ron had resorted to asking Parvati and Padma Patil to the dance. Ron wasn't too disappointed about his date with Padma, Dean had thought he'd scored big time by becoming her escort. But Harry on the other hand, was bound to be bit of a disappointment on the night of the Yule Ball, as he would probably be staring sadly at Cedric and Cho. Ron was still bothering Hermione about who she was taking to the ball and Hermione had become extremely sick of having the same conversation over and over again. Just last she had thrown one of her books at his head, and it had just narrowly missed the side of his head.

'Who are you going with Hermione?' Ron asked when there was about two hours to go until the ball.

'I am not having this discussion again, _Ronald,_' she said coldly and headed up the stairs towards the girls dormitories, supposedly to get ready.

'Wow, listen to her Harry!' said Ron. 'Tetchy, huh?'

'If you stopped bothering her, I'm sure she wouldn't be,' Harry snapped in return, trying to get his to lie flat.

Ron breathed out, 'And apparently, so are you,' he added. 'Want some jell for that hair?'

'What, and turn out looking like Malfoy, no thank you.'

Ron chuckled, 'You got a point there, mate,' he groaned. 'I am going to look terrible! One look at in dress robes and Padma would wish I'd gone naked.'

'Everyone else wouldn't be too happy if you went naked, Ron please wear clothing.'

'Don't worry; I will be fully clothed for tonight's celebrations.'

'Good,' Harry grinned at his friend.

'Your dress robes are so much better then mine,' Ron grumbled. 'I look like a frilly lizard when I wear mine, but you'll probably have every girl in that hall swooning over you,' he flopped down onto the couch, with a defeated sigh.

_Yeah, that's good and everything, but it's not the girls I want to impress. _Harry though to him, smiling half heartedly.

* * *

Harry had just finished tying the bow tie around his neck, when Ron burst into the room. Harry gasped and brought a hand to his mouth, trying to suppress his urge to laugh. Harry had seen the dress robes, but not on anyone before, and they were a lot worse once someone was inside them. The robes were maroon and lacy. 'Lacy,' Harry said the first word that came to mind.

'Bloody lacy, I am a frilly lizard!' Ron cried out in disgust, shaking the robes about, his face red with anger. '_You_,' he rounded on Harry and looked him up and down. 'You look good, I hate you.'

'Oh gee, thanks Ron,' Harry said, knowing Ron didn't really mean his words. Harry looked back into the mirror and adjusted his glasses. He wore simple dress robes, with a white dress shirt underneath. The black robe widened at the arms and was tight around the waist, before flowing out again. Harry saw that he looked good, and he certainly felt good also.

'Come on,' Harry said to Ron, who was still staring the mirror, with a horrified look on his face. 'Ron, _come on. _I'm sure Padma won't mind your robes.'

'Harry, I'm seriously thinking about going naked.'

Harry groaned and grabbed Ron's arm, and forcefully dragging him through the portrait hole and down the Great Hall. Harry gaped at the hall, it had changed so dramatically that he hardly recognized it as the place he'd eaten breakfast in this morning. Silvery frost decorated the walls, and made them shine amazingly brightly. Garlands of mistletoe and ivy were hanging by invisible threads from the ceiling. Harry could see on one side of the great hall hundreds of little tables stood, that looked to be able to sit about ten or more people, the tables were all draped with a silvery table cloth.

Parvati and Padma Patil had some how appeared by the boys sides as they stared around at the decorations. 'Amazing isn't it?' Parvati asked Harry, who received quite a shock when she spoke.

'Oh!' he exclaimed. 'Parvati, wow you look really nice,' she did look nice, but the dress she was wearing hurt his eyes it was so bright. Parvati grinned and twirled around, displaying the shocking pink dress.

'You think so?' she looped her arm through his. 'Thanks Harry.'

Meanwhile Padma was giving Ron an awkward look. 'Ron, you look, uh, so very charming.'

'Thanks Padma!' Ron beamed, happy that someone, even though they were lying, had complimented him. 'You look really pretty as well.'

'Oh my gosh,' Parvati and Padma squeaked in unison. 'She looks beautiful.'

Harry and Ron turned around to the steps that led down to the great hall, and found they were staring at Hermione. 'Wow,' Harry breathed out slowly, nudging Ron in the ribs. She did look beautiful, her hair was sleek and shiny, and not its usual frizzy self, and her dress hugged her in all the right places. She was beaming happily as she waltzed down the steps and gave her escort a hug.

'VIKTOR KRUM!' Ron hissed loudly in Harry's ear. 'She's going with Viktor Krum, and fraternizing with the enemy.' Hermione smiled over at them waving, Harry waved back but Ron's reaction caught her completely off guard. He glared at her. Harry didn't notice Ron's glare, and Hermione's rude gesture that was her response. He was too busy thinking about Cedric, and badly he had been fraternizing with the enemy.

Professor McGonagall came up behind the clusters of students and shooed most of them into the hall, so that the only remaining ones were the champion's and there partners. 'Ms Chang, where is Mr. Diggory?'

Cho Chang was standing in front of Harry and Parvati, alone and without Cedric for the time being. 'He's coming, Professor,' she assured her.

And sure enough, just after Cho said this Cedric could be seen pushing his way past students that were still milling outside the great hall. He blew a kiss in Cho's direction, when only her, Harry and Parvati could see. Cho giggled and straightened up, happily taking his arm, knowing it was for her.

Cedric leaned back and whispered so quietly so only Harry could hear him. 'That kiss was for you,' he grinned and stepped forward as the music started and the champion's marched into the great hall ready to began their dance.

* * *

PLEASE REVIEW! 


	3. Fraternizing with the Enemy

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART THREE**

'Look at them,' Ron snorted, staring at Hermione and Krum. 'Just look, is that not disgusting?' He shuddered as Krum put his arms around Hermione and lifted her up in air, like he'd done so many times in the Champion's Dance. Hermione giggled girlishly whenever he did this, flicking her hair away from her face.

'Ron, shut it,' Padma snapped at him. She was growing more annoyed by the second that Ron was refusing to dance with her. She desperately tried again. 'Ron, are you going to dance with me or not?'

Ron pretending to be thinking seriously about his answers, but was really just trying to annoy Padma further. 'Not,' he answered.

Padma looked like she was going to slap him, she raised her hand causing Ron to flinch, but she thought better of it and stood up in a huff; quickly crossing the hall to join a group of her fellow Ravenclaw's. Harry could hear her venting her anger to her friends even above the loud music.

Harry had danced with Parvati five times already, just to keep his mind of Cedric and Cho, and he wasn't keen on dancing again. He winced as the wizard band struck up a slow song, and the singer's husky voice echoed around the hall. Parvati always wanted to dance to the slow songs, and by now Harry was dead sick of her and her annoyingly eye catching dress, that caused heads to turn when they danced.

'Harry,' Parvati said in a sickly sweet voice. 'Let's dance,' she stood up and waited for him to stand with her. Harry stayed seated next to Ron, and Parvati glared at him. '_Harry, I said let's dance,' _her tone was bordering on screaming. Yet Harry didn't move.

'I'm not in the mood for dancing,' he said.

'Harry!' she said, stamping her foot. 'This is a _ball!_ You're supposed to dance.'

'We've already danced about five times, isn't that enough?'

'People have been out there dancing with each other the whole night, and you think five times is enough?!'

'Well, yeah,' Harry was sick of Parvati, he wouldn't care if he never saw her again. _Someone please come and take her away! _He thought to himself, groaning with annoyance.

'Would you like a dance?' someone asked Parvati in a thick accent very similar to Krum's. The Indian girl whirled around and came face to face with a student from Durmstrang.

'Please, just take me away from him!' she said to the boy, attaching herself to his arm.

'Thank you!' Harry called out after the boy, determined to have the last insult. He turned to Ron and said, 'this has been the most pathetic night of my life.'

'Certainly has,' Ron said, sipping on a drink. 'Look,' he pointed out into the crowd. 'Neville and my sister,' he made a disgusted gagging noise.

'Do you reckon she just used him to get into the dance?' Harry asked.

'Nah, she's quite fond of Neville.'

'Oh,' Harry said quietly, his thoughts drifting off to other more important things. Like the fact that Cedric was still out there dancing with Cho and he had been for the past four hours. Harry didn't know how they'd managed it. And she kept resting her head on his chest, during the slow songs. Harry felt himself prickle with jealously when he looked over at the two. Harry heard Ron scoff and mutter something under his breathe, he heard the words _idiotic, stupid _and _broom boy, _so Harry assumed Ron was watching Hermione and Krum again.

'Ron, how much do you like Hermione?' he asked suddenly, his eyes trailing Cedric.

This question caught Ron completely off guard, and he nearly chocked on his Pumpkin Juice. 'As a friend, yeah, like her as a friend, you know, friend wise. Quite nice, friendly friend wise,' Ron babbled turning a shade of scarlet that made him look like he was disappearing inside his dress robes.

Harry laughed and ruffled Ron's ginger hair. 'Yeah, sure Ron,' he ignored his friend's glare.

There was a gap filled only by silence between the two for a while, as they watched people out on the dancing floor. Harry nearly doubled over when he felt Ron's elbow collide with his ribs. 'Harry,' he hissed, failing to hiss quietly though. 'Hermione's coming over here to talk to us, and Krum's following!'

Before Harry had the chance to reply Hermione had joined them at the table and chuckling quietly to herself. 'Hey, where's Padma and Parvati?' she asked.

'With other people,' Ron said sourly, but he quickly changed the subject to one that interested him more. 'Why didn't you tell us you were going with Krum?'

Hermione's eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms over her chest. 'Because he asked me to go with him,' she said.

'Yeah, but why didn't you tell us you were going with him?' Ron asked.

'I didn't want the whole school knowing who I was going with before the ball night!' Hermione said and then added. 'Ron, you gossip.'

Ron looked genuinely shocked at her answer, 'You think I gossip?'

Hermione turned to Harry for back up and so did Ron, but Harry was again staring at Cedric so he wasn't in any mood to talk or pay attention.

'Harry,' Ron said quickly. 'Do you think I gossip?'

'Yeah, yup, whatever,' Harry said.

'Yeah, Harry cheers for the help,' Ron frowned at him.

Hermione how ever pressed a hand to Harry's forehead, clucking her tongue. 'Are you all right? You looked really flushed.'

'Just a little hot in here,' he grinned, fanning himself and putting on a good act. 'I'm going to go outside for a bit.' He quickly stood, leaving Hermione and Ron staring after him. Neither made any move to come after him, he didn't mind. He didn't want to be present during another argument and have to take sides. He just wondered when Ron would come to his senses and realize he was jealous, not just annoyed. Harry also wondered when Ron would admit his feelings for Hermione. Harry pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind, and stopped at the entrance to the hall and turned and looked around at the remaining couples. Only ten or so couples were still out there, many people had gone to bed as it was nearly two in the morning, his bristled when he saw Cho and Cedric still out there. _Is she not going to let him go all night?' _Harry thought gloomily.

He sighed. _Apparently not, _as he saw them settle in for what looked to be a long dance. Harry turned around and walked out into the gardens out the front of the hall. The gardens were beautiful on normal days but on the night of the Yule Ball, they were spectacular. The rose bushes glinted in the light from the castle windows, and Harry saw that they were covered with silvery dust. His evening (or morning) stroll was interrupted by the unpleasant arrival of Draco Malfoy, with Pansy Parkinson on his arm.

'_Potter,_' he sneered, seeing Harry standing by a rose bush all alone. The tone of his voice wasn't just filled with dislike; there was a hint of happiness in it also. Harry knew he was happy to see because now he could show off his fellow Slytherin and date, Pansy.

'All on your own Potter?' he laughed, throwing back his head, this encouraged Pansy to start laughing as well. Harry really wished she hadn't, she had a laugh like a dying cow. Draco proceeded with his insults. 'Did Weasel turn you down Potter?' Pansy snickered.

'Oh, hah,' Harry said, pretending to laugh. 'You know Draco, I heard that you were going with Crabbe or Goyle, or did they turn you down as well?'

Draco's smile faltered and he adjusted the collar of his dress robes which were so high he bared resemblance to a vicar. He tried to run at Harry, but thought better of it when Professor Dumbledore appeared in the gardens. 'I'll get you Potter,' he hissed at Harry before turning away and beckoning for Pansy to follow him.

Dumbledore smile wistfully when he saw Harry, and raised his hand in a wave before scanning the gardens once more and returning back into the hall.

'Do you theenk 'e saw us?' the voice of Fleur Delacour could be heard even from where Harry was standing. He froze, not wanting Fleur and her date, Roger Davies to see him. Roger stuck his head from around the side of the bush they had concealed themselves in.

'I-I'm not sure,' he whispered, his voice a lot quieter than Fleur's. 'But just to be on the safe side, let's go to my dormitory,' he suggested and led Fleur away with him.

When they'd gone Harry crept out from his hiding place, careful to check if there were any more hidden couples and sat down leaning against the stone of the castle wall, the smell of the roses making him drowsy. He'd sat there for what seemed a long while, staring blankly off into space when he felt someone sit down beside him.

'I thought I'd never get away from her,' Cedric said, placing his arm around Harry's shoulders. 'Have you been waiting out here for me?'

'Well, I did hope you'd come out for fresh air at least one time tonight,' Harry said, nestling in to Cedric and enjoying the comforting feeling of the older boys arm around him.

'Cho wanted one more dance, again and again,' Cedric said.

'You and Cho made good partners,' Harry added, trying to keep his voice as normal as possible. He didn't succeed very well, and his voice turned sour when he said Cho's name.

'You really don't like her do you?' Cedric said, grinning at him.

'No, not much,' he smiled back.

'You and Parvati, or was it Padma? You two made excellent partners as well.'

'It was Parvati,' Harry confirmed. 'I can't dance nearly as well as you can.'

'Mm, I like all these compliments, Harry,' Cedric said, kissing his cheek, making Harry blush. 'You dance well too.'

Harry laughed, and patted Cedric's knee. 'You're just saying that.'

'I'm not, come on, Potter,' Cedric teased and eased himself onto his feet, and offered Harry his hand. 'Would you like to dance?' he smiled down at him.

Harry felt as though his stomach was full of butterflies as he nodded to Cedric and took his hand. Cedric helped him too his feet and placed his hand on Harry's waist, pulling him in closer. Harry placed his hand gently on Cedric's shoulder, as Cedric began to lead him through some simple steps. He spun Harry out and then pulled him back towards him tenderly. 'See,' Cedric said quietly in Harry's ear. 'You're not bad.'

Harry smiled and pulled out a little to look at Cedric, he looked so handsome; Harry felt his face flushing a little bit. 'You helped me though.'

'Harry, you're so modest,' Cedric grinned and leaned down to kiss him. One of Cedric's hands moved down to the small of Harry's back and pushed the boy in closer to him. Harry barely noticed that his hand had crept up to Cedric's neck; he was captivated in the kiss. Cedric broke the kiss, and stared at Harry. Harry rose up on the tips of his toes and kissed Cedric again, a little harder then the last.

'Harry,' Cedric said softly when they broke apart. 'I've liked you for a long time.'

'So have I, Ced,' Harry grinned. 'Liked you I mean, not myself.'

Cedric laughed and kissed Harry's cheek. 'How long have you liked me for?' he asked.

'Ever since the beginning of this year. How long have you, you know?'

'Ever since we played each other in that Quidditch match last year,' Cedric grinning, grabbing Harry's hand and dancing slowly with him again. 'You seemed so much younger than me then.'

'But you didn't care?' Harry asked.

'No, not really,' Cedric said. 'I don't care now, either,' he grinned letting Harry pull him into another kiss that was brought on by a wave of emotion. Neither boy realized that they were in plain view of the great hall, and that one person was standing staring at them, his mouth and eyes wide open in shook. Cedric finally noticed when he broke apart and was beginning to give Harry one last small kiss.

'Harry,' he murmured, nudging him.

Harry followed Cedric's gaze and his eyes widened also as he saw Ron standing there with a dumfounded look on his face. Ron's mouth opened and closed several times, making him look like a gold fish. 'I accused Hermione of fraternizing with the enemy!' he finally said, speaking quickly. 'But you and him. You-you and Cedric, _kissing,'_ Ron's rose into a squeak as he said the last words, he opened his mouth to say something but shook his head and began to flee up the stairs towards the Gryffindor tower.

Harry stared after Ron for a few seconds before he felt Cedric softly place his hand on his chin and turn Harry's face back towards his. 'Do you care that he knows?' asked Cedric.

'No.'

'Ok, I just wondered since he is your best friend and everything,' Cedric said, adjusting Harry's glasses which had become a little lopsided.

'I think I'd better go and talk to him,' Harry said quietly.

Cedric nodded and captured Harry in one last soft kiss before he turned away up the stairs. Harry licked his lips as he walked away, they still tasted like Cedric. Harry smiled.

* * *

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	4. The Dream

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART FOUR**

Harry looked up at the grey sky, and flinched when a droplet of rain hit him squarely in the eye. He looked back down to the ground rubbing his eye. The grass that he was standing on was as green as the Slytherin uniform and damp from the rain that had started pattering down. Harry shrugged his shoulders, unsure of how he got here and of where he was. When he stepped a blanket of mist crowded in around him almost instantly. Soon the sky and grass was replaced by a wall of white mist, he bravely continued to walk forward, though his heart was pounding loudly in his chest. After Harry had been walking for what seemed like an age, he crashed into a rock. He gasped out in pain, and rubbed his forehead and knees. Voices were echoing around from in front of the giant rock, Harry peered nervously around it, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

A circle of mist suddenly lifted before his eyes and he saw a bizarre scene before him. Ron and Hermione staring at each other, and few meters away from them the Triwizard Champion's, Fleur Delacour, Cedric and Viktor Krum were standing in a huddle as well. He could only see the faces of Ron and Viktor but he could tell who the other three people were. Then suddenly, as if on an unseen or unheard cue, all the figures started screaming at the top of their lungs at each other. Ron and Hermione were yelling louder then Harry had ever heard them yell at each, and the champion's were all screaming words he could barely understand too. Violence broke out amongst the groups, Hermione and Ron had dived at each, hitting and punching for all their worth, and the champion's had their wands out and were circling each other, occasionally casting nasty curses and hexes.

Harry ran out from behind the rock and tried to break up the fights, but the rock turned into Hagrid and grabbed him pinning his arms by his sides. He was unable to move. The fights raged on for several minutes, Harry flicked between each brawl as though watching a tennis match, and he tried to break free of Hagrid's grip all the while. He was crying now, tears of frustration and sorrow rolling down his face and hitting the grass with great splashes, like he was in a swimming pool.

Without warning a jet of green light shot from three different wands, and connected with the intended victims with a loud bang. Harry gasped, his throat aching from all the crying he'd been doing. He saw Ron lying on the ground, an expression of shock frozen on his face, he looked up at Hermione. She was standing with her wand still pointed at Ron, but her head was down, and her bushy hair covering her eyes. Harry bit back a scream of terror and panic and turned his eyes slowly to the other group of people. Cedric was lying on the ground, facing upwards with the same frozen expression on his face. Fleur and Krum were standing in the same position as Hermione, both their wands were pointing at Cedric's motionless body. Harry couldn't see Fleur's face, as her golden hair was covering it up from view. But he saw Krum's, he was frightened to see that his eyes were blood red, and a huge smile was painted across his face.

Abruptly all the killers head snapped up, Hermione and Fleur's hair flicked out of the way so Harry could see their eyes. They were blood red, just like Krum's. He shut his eyes trying to shut out the horrible image before him, but he still heard their voices. Hermione's British accent, Fleur's French and Krum's Bulgarian combined together to speak three words, 'I'm sorry Harry.'

Harry woke with a start, he sat bolt up right in bed, shaking. He was relieved when he found himself in the Gryffindor boys' dormitories. He chocked as more tears began to spill down his face. He hurriedly felt around his bed side table for his glasses and pulled him on his face, nearly poking himself in the eye. The items that been teetering on the edge of his bedside table after he'd found his glasses; fell with a crash to the floor. Harry barely noticed the noise as he flung himself from out under the sheets and prodded Ron's still form with his wand. Harry tried to furiously rub the tears away from his eyes.

'Whassamattaharry?' Ron's sleepy reply came from under the blankets, and Harry saw his friends red head emerge.

'Thank goodness you're alive!' he said flinging him at Ron, and hugging him so hard the air was pushed from his lungs.

'_Harry,_' squeaked Ron. 'You're hurting me, and are you ok? What happened?'

'Sorry,' said Harry and he let go of Ron. 'Nightmare, terrible nightmare,' he muttered to Ron. 'Hermione killed you, and her eyes were red and then Fleur and Krum killed Cedric, they had red eyes too and a rock turned into Hagrid.' Harry whipped away the last of his tears.

Ron's eyes narrowed at the mention of Cedric Diggory's name, he remembered he hadn't spoken to Harry since the ball, and that had been three nights ago. Ron didn't say another word to his friend; instead he rolled over and pulled the covers back up around his body.

Harry looked at his watch. _6:30am,_ it read. Harry decided that since they'd be getting up in half an hour he would try and talk to Ron about what he had seen. 'Ron?' he asked timidly. 'Ron? Ron, please don't ignore me.'

'What Harry?' Ron snapped.

'Can we talk, about the Yule Ball?'

'I don't want to talk about that, thank you very much,' he said, sounding very much like Hermione.

'Ron, please?'

'Harry!' hissed Ron, throwing the covers off his body again. 'I didn't like what I saw, ok?' he was silent for a while before adding. 'Why didn't you tell me earlier?'

'Because you'd react exactly in this way, Ron,' muttered Harry. 'And you got so upset when you found out that 'Mione was going with Krum, I didn't want you to react in the same way.'

'Does Hermione know?' Ron asked, not saying anything to Harry's pervious comment.

'I don't think she knows that I've been pashing the other Hogwarts Champion.'

'_Harry, ew!' _Ron nearly shouted. 'I don't want to hear about that! Look, mate,' he began before Harry interrupted him.

'Wait, Ron. Do you think that my being gay isn't acceptable or the fact that I've been with Cedric?'

'That you've been with Cedric, he's Hufflepuff and he's the other champion, Harry. That's fraternizing,' he said.

'So you have no problem that I'm, that I'm you know?' shrugged Harry, he didn't want to speak louder as the rest of the dormitory was beginning to wake up.

'No, Harry I don't.'

'Thanks Ron, that means a lot.'

'But!' Ron quickly added. 'I do not want you making out in front of me ever again with any of your gentleman callers.'

Harry grinned, flopping back down into his bed. 'Yes, mother.'

* * *

Dumbledore drummed his fingers on the desk, silently sucking on a sherbet sweet. He was waiting for Professor McGonagall to come into his office, so they could discuss the second task, without any of the other ministry officials or people from the other schools around.

Professor McGonagall came into the room holding a piece of parchment in her wrinkled hands. 'Good afternoon, Albus,' she smiled lightly, sitting the chair that sat before the headmasters desk.

'Minerva,' he smiled back at her. 'So, who what did Madame Maxime and Karakoff say about their champion's most prized possession, or what ever the song detailed?'

'Ms Delacour would sorely miss her sister,' Minerva said, pushing her spectacles back up her long pointed nose. 'And Mr. Krum could miss,' she paused. 'Hermione Granger.'

'Yes, saw those two together at the ball; Hermione is really splendid at dancing.'

'Yes, she is.'

'What about our two champions'?' Dumbledore said, finding it impossible to hide that hint of annoyance in his voice.

'Well, Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter have been spending an awful lot of time together,' the professor said. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow in question and Minerva continued. 'Myrtle caught them, together, in the Prefects' bathrooms.'

Dumbledore's expression did not change. 'But we can't have a champion hostage, that'll simply never work,' he suddenly chuckled. 'She caught them together, _together_?' he asked.

Minerva shrugged. 'She just said they were together,' she cleared her throat and continued. 'May I suggest Ronald Weasley for Potter and Cho Chang for Diggory then?'

'Splendid.'

* * *

Harry and Ron ran down to breakfast, after sleeping in a little late because of their early morning discussion. Harry was running his hands over his dark hair, trying to make it lie flat. He cursed as he nearly walked into the stair case.

'Harry, mate,' Ron smirked at his feeble attempts. 'I thought we agreed your hair will never lie flat?'

'Yeah, but there's no harm in trying to make it lie flat,' said Harry, nearly smacking his head in frustration.

'Harry, just cool it ok?' Ron said. 'I'm sure Cedric doesn't care about your hair!'

Harry groaned and slid into an empty chair beside Hermione, who didn't look up at either of her friends, she was deep in conversation with Nearly Headless Nick. Harry shrugged at Ron and they both began to eat breakfast.

'Morning!' Hermione said cheerfully, after Nick had floated away and through a first year, who dropped a bowl of porridge on his pants from the shock.

'Phorning!' Harry and Ron spluttered at the same time, Ron had just shoved a mouthful of cornflakes into his mouth, while Harry had just taken a large bite out of his toast.

Hermione gave her friends a disgusted look, and was about to open her mouth when the morning post arrived. Hedwig dropped a square of neatly folded parchment on Harry's head; he didn't bother reading the note until they were in Charms.

'Who's the note from?' Ron asked when Harry had opened it whilst practicing a particularly boring charm.

Harry stared down at the note which read:

_Harry, can you meet me by the greenhouses tonight at about eight? _

_I want to talk about the second task. _

_- Cedric. _

Harry felt a flush creeping up his neck, and he grinned at the note, stuffing it in his pocket. Ron coughed lightly getting Harry's attention again and was about to ask the question again when Hermione turned around and hissed at them both. 'Will you be _quiet? _This will probably be in our exams!'

'It's from Sirius,' Harry lied. And Ron nodded thinking nothing more about the note.

* * *

'I'm going for a walk,' he stood up from their table in the common room. Ron nodded, muttering a 'See you later' and rubbed a hand across his mouth, smearing ink along so it looked as though he had a moustache. Harry suppressed as smirk as he left his two friends alone, he knew when he came back he'd find at least Hermione in the same place.

The night was cold, and Harry shivered as he walked down towards the greenhouses. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, anxious to keep them warm. Harry frowned as he felt the cold breeze push against his skin. 'Great, now it's cold and windy.'

'Oh, it's not that bad,' Cedric said, coming up beside him.

'Cedric!' Harry exclaimed. 'You scared me; I thought you'd already be waiting at the greenhouses.'

'Cho cornered me, wanted to know why I was going for a walk so late,' Cedric grinned at Harry, and looped his arm through his.

They walked contentedly, arm and arm, until they reached the greenhouses; where Cedric pulled his arm away from Harry and flopped down onto the ground. Harry was busy adjusting his Gryffindor scarf when Cedric gently grabbed hold of his waist and pulled him down so that he was sitting in between his legs. Harry snuggled into Cedric's warm body, grateful for the extra warmth and touch. Cedric kissed the side of his head.

'So, how'd things go with Ron?' he asked.

'He said I was 'fraternizing with the enemy',' Harry grinned up at Cedric.

Cedric laughed. 'He's all right with it though, I saw you guys at breakfast you all looked pretty happy.'

'Yeah, he's fine with it, do any of your friends know?'

'A few, but I've sworn each of them to secrecy.'

Harry turned around in Cedric's lap, so he was facing the older boy. Cedric stared into his eyes as Harry pushed him down, lying on top of him. Soon the two were enjoying a fiery kiss; Cedric eased open Harry's mouth with his tongue and explored every nook and cranny. Harry shuddered with pleasure and brought a hand up into Cedric's hair. Like he always did, Cedric ran both hands down Harry's back pressing the younger boy harder against him.

When they broke apart, Harry murmured in Cedric's ear. 'God, you are so beautiful.'

It was getting darker so Harry couldn't see the crimson blush that had appeared on Cedric's face. 'Mm, Harry,' he moaned lightly running his hands through Harry's hair. 'It's you who are beautiful.'

Harry didn't respond, but rolled off Cedric and lay beside him, resting a hand on his chest. 'Are you nervous?' he asked.

'About what, Harry?'

'The second task.'

'Yeah, I am nervous, I try not to think about it though,' Cedric said, running his hands through Harry's soft black hair. 'Are you?'

'Nervous as hell,' Harry said. 'I'm worried about you too.'

'Harry, I'm touched that you're concerned for my safety,' he said grinning, and then his voice took a serious tone. 'I'm worried about you also.'

'I'm certain we'll both be fine,' Harry said kissing Cedric's neck. He felt a shiver run through the older boy's body. 'You liked that, Ced?' he grinned.

'Yes,' he heard Cedric purr. Cedric turned his head and caught Harry's mouth with his; it was a soft kiss that displayed affection. Harry pulled apart first and then placed a series of kisses on Cedric's lips.

'We'd better go,' Cedric said suddenly.

Harry nodded and stood up, helping Cedric too his feet. Cedric put his arm around Harry's shoulders and they walked back towards the castle.

'Only two days until the second task,' Cedric reminded him.

'Oh, yeah,' Harry shuddered. 'I'm not looking forward to it that much,' he and Ced both smiled.

The older boy leaned down and kissed Harry on the lips, quickly and softly before whispering in his ear. 'Good night, Harry.'

Harry wore a silly smile on his face all the way up the stairs to the seventh floor common room.

* * *

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	5. The Second Task

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART FIVE**

'How are you going to breathe under water for an hour?' Hermione's voice protruded from behind a book, asking the question for what must have been the twelfth time.

The three friends were sitting the library on the eve of the second task. They had been in there for hours. Hermione had wisely dragged them away during dinner when Harry admitted he didn't know what he was going to do. Harry was certain they had looked in every book in the library for a hint of anything he could use. Ron was asleep, his head resting on a book _Crazy Charms_ that had amused him for the first hour before he'd gotten bored. But Hermione and Harry had labored through the night desperately hoping to find something.

'I don't know Hermione,' Harry said, banging his head against the circular desk. He repeated what he'd said to Cedric during their bath. 'I'll probably just drown.'

'Don't be so negative Harry, we'll find something,' the young witch assured him.

Harry smiled at her and trudged wearily over the bookshelf and came back with a handful, he dumped them unceremoniously in front of Ron. Ron received such a fright at being woken that he nearly fell of his chair.

Once he'd recovered he murmured. 'I just closed my eyes for a second, Harry. I'll get back to work now.'

'Thanks mate,' Harry grinned. He was really glad that Ron and Hermione were helping him, he'd left it so late that he really couldn't have done it without them.

But their studies were interrupted a mere fifteen minutes later by Neville Longbottom arriving in the library. He was greeted to a chorus of, 'Hey Neville.'

He smiled and walked over to their table. 'Uhh, sorry to be a bother,' he said. 'But Professor Dumbledore would like to see Hermione and Ron in his office, now.'

The look on Hermione's face was one of pure distress, what had she ever done wrong, apart from hanging around with two troublesome boys she was completely innocent. 'Neville, are we in trouble?'

'I don't know, sorry,' he added and peered over Harry's shoulder. 'What are you looking in a book about water plants for Harry?'

'I need to breathe under water, for an hour,' Harry's response was sharp and curt, but Neville didn't seemed to be bothered by it.

'For the second task?' he asked.

'No, for a leisurely swim.'

Harry stood nervously on the platform that was jutting out of the lake. He could hear the roars of the ecstatic crowd echoing in his ears. He looked behind him at the crowds gathered; nearly the entire school and the extra students from Beaubatons and Durmstrang were sitting in the temporary stands. He could here a loud chant starting up behind him that was in French, and he saw Fleur looking behind her at her fellow students with a expression of appreciation on her face.

The water before him looked cold and uninviting; he squeezed the Gillyweed in his hand. Dobby had thrust it into his hand just this morning, informing Harry that he should eat it before jumping into the lake. He was dreading jumping in, the murky green water was as off putting as Aunt Marge's home made dog biscuits. He shivered and opened his palm to stare at the Gillyweed for a second time this morning. It was green, slimy and looked vaguely like rat tails; he shuddered not wanting to put this foul weed in his mouth.

'Hey, Harry,' Cedric said nervously, he'd switched places with Fleur so he could beside the other Hogwarts champion. 'How are you feeling?'

'That's a stupid question Ced,' Harry said quietly. 'I feel like I'm going to be sick. How are you feeling?'

'Not so fantastic either-'

But before the boys could say anything more to each other the magically enhanced voice of Ludo Bagman echoed out across the stands. 'Welcome!' Bagman cried a smile was plastered across his face. 'To the second task, last night something was taken from our champion's, something they hold dear. Today they will have one hour and one hour only to find what has been taken from them.'

He paused and looked towards the four champions'. 'BEGIN!' he shouted loudly, his voice thundering.

Harry stuffed the Gillyweed inside his mouth as the others jumped into the murky waters of the lake. He felt ridiculous standing there, waiting for something to happen when the others had already disappeared from sight. He could whispers around him and loud hysterical laughter that was obviously coming from Draco and his gang. Suddenly he couldn't breathe; he clung to the lasts breath of air left in his lungs, and if as if on an instinct threw him into the water. This action surprised him as much as it did everyone else, but what surprised him more was that he now found he could breathe with ease. He began to swim forward, like a frog, using his arms and legs to push his way through the water. He looked down at his hands and feet and found that they had transformed, and turned webbed. He silently thanked Dobby and started to swim further down into the gloomy depths of the lake.

* * *

A large hand was extended his way; Harry grabbed it with relief and let himself be pulled out of the water. He was about to turn around and help Ron and Gabrielle out when he saw it was Cedric who'd pulled him out of the water. Harry had to resist the temptation to fling his arms around the older boy's neck and kiss him. Cedric looked just fine, he was out of the water and walking around so Harry took that as a good sign, and all the worry he had passed away.

'Harry, meet me outside the library this afternoon, after lunch,' Cedric whispered so only Harry could hear, and then he turned and walked away back to Cho, who have him a large hug.

'Harry!' Ron was hissing and him and grabbing at his ankle and trying to cling onto the stands at the same time. 'A little help, please?'

He nodded vaguely still staring after Cedric, but snapped too and turned around and pulled Fleur's little sister out of the water, Fleur was crying as she ran to greet her sister. Ron was helped out of the water by the twins, and they gave him a large fluffy towel in addition to a hug. Harry received a similar towel from Madam Pomfrey when he was dragged off by her.

He saw Hermione and Krum talking, and suddenly understood why Ron and Hermione had needed to go to Dumbledore's office. He sat down next to Ron who was shivering like mad, but drinking something that seemed to relax him and warm him up.

'Ron, what happened in the headmaster's office last night?' Harry asked.

'What?' Ron replied. 'I've got water in my ear Harry.'

'WHAT HAPPENED IN THE HEADMASTER'S OFFICE LAST NIGHT?' Harry bellowed in Ron's ear, laughing when Ron flinched from the alarm and nearly dropped his drink.

'Ok, ok Harry!' he grinned, taking another sip. 'When Hermione and I got to the Dumbledore's office, Gabrielle and Cho were already there, and then Dumbledore told us what was going on and put us in an enchanted sleep. Hey Harry did you know that there are merpeople down there, in the lake?' said Ron, babbling a little, as though he was unable to stop himself talking once he started.

'Yeah, I noticed,' Harry grinned.

* * *

Harry and Ron ate lunch together in the Great Hall. Harry spent the whole time listening to Ron moan and groan about Krum, who was sitting a little further down the Gryffindor table with Hermione. He was exhausted from the task beforehand, and only managed to nod and smile at Ron's non-stop blabbering. Relieved as he was that the next task was nearly two months from now, he was also deeply nervous about it as they'd been given no clues what so ever. Harry kept looking dreamily over at the Hufflepuff table, trying to spot out Cedric amongst the clusters of people milling around.

'Harry, are you listening to me at all?' asked Ron, aggravation clear in his voice.

'Krum is a wanker, yeah,' Harry mumbled.

Ron shook his head, and apparently did not care wither Harry was listening or and continued rambling on about how great Krum thought he was and how great he really wasn't. Looking back over at the Hufflepuff table, Harry was irritated to see that there was no sign of Cedric at all. _Was he already waiting outside the library? _He thought_. But he clearly said after lunch, and lunch hasn't finished._

Harry couldn't be bothered waiting any longer for the mid day meal to end, so he stood up muttered something to Ron and left him sitting there by himself. He trudged up towards the library, jumping over the trick stair. He squirmed uncomfortable as he thrust his hands into his pockets and discovered a string of Gillyweed was left over, he pulled it out and dropped it in the nearest bin he passed.

Harry stood outside the library, and stifled a yawn; he was still tired from the morning's activities. He leaned back against the wall, drumming his fingers on the wood. Looking at his watch he saw that lunch was well and truly over and had been for the past five minutes.

'Harry!' he heard Cedric's voice calling him, he looked around but the older boy was no where to be seen. 'On the stairs Harry!'

Harry walked over the stairs, looking downwards he saw Cedric rushing up towards him. Cedric threw his arms tightly around Harry's waist, squeezing the breath out of him.

'Hey Ced,' Harry murmured in his ear.

'I was worried about you,' the reply came in a rush of words. 'You came out of the lake so much later than everyone else, I thought something had happened.'

'Nothing happened to me,' assured Harry. 'I was worried about you too.'

Cedric grinned and pulled Harry down the stairs, ignoring Harry when he asked where they were going. He held Harry's hand as they walked outside, thankful there weren't many students around. Cedric had taken Harry to the lake, and both boys were glad the day was so quiet and calm. Harry wrapped his arm around the boy's waist and rested his head on his shoulder.

'I'm tired,' he admitted.

'Yeah, so am I,' Cedric replied. 'Come on, let's go lie down some where.'

Harry and Cedric walked further along the banks of the lake, until they came to a large tree which branches shaded out the sunlight. Cedric flopped down and pulled Harry down with him. He yawned and chuckled when Harry did the same.

'Are you copying me?' he asked playfully, kissing Harry's forehead.

'No,' Harry shook his head. 'Yawn's are contagious.'

The boys remained quiet for a while, just lying in each others arms and enjoying the day. Harry was listening to Cedric breathing and could feel his chest rising with each breath.

'Do you think Cho knows yet?' Harry asked, breaking the blanket of silence.

'No,' Cedric whispered. 'I don't really want her to find out either.'

'Why don't you?'

'She'd freak out and then before you knew it the hole school would now.'

'That'd be kind off awkward,' Harry giggled.

Cedric dislodged Harry from his chest and propped himself up on one elbow staring at the boy below him. He reached out and traced Harry's scar with his finger. 'Can you remember that night much?' he asked.

'Not really, a flash of green and that's all,' said Harry. 'Do you think things would have been different between us if I wasn't the 'Boy Who Lived'?'

Cedric lay down next to him again, kissing his cheek. 'Mm, no I don't think so. You still would have played Quidditch against me, so I would have noticed you.'

Harry beamed; glad Cedric didn't just like him because he was famous. Harry leaned over and pulled himself on top of him, kissing him furiously. Cedric kissed him back with the same intensity, their lips opened at the same time and they explored each others mouth. Cedric broke the kiss just to roll them over so that Harry was underneath; Cedric leaned in closer and pressed his forehead against Harry's, kissing his nose. He kissed his lips again, deepening the kiss and causing Harry to shudder and a wave of emotion ran through him.

'Ced,' he murmured when the boy's lips left his.

'What?' Cedric said in a throaty voice, still lying on top of him.

'I think I-'

'_Cedric?' _once again they had been caught, and just when Harry was about to say something important. Harry looked over to see who had discovered them this time.

* * *

PLEASE REVIEW! Any ideas on who has spotted them this time?


	6. Cedric Diggory with 'Arry Potter

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART SIX**

Cedric rolled off Harry and sat up looking at the speaker. He gaped, unsure of what to say. Harry meanwhile tried to press himself further into the grass in a useless attempt to camouflage himself. It was too late the intruder had seen them both.

'_Cedric Diggory with 'Arry Potter,'_ she breathed out in shock. Harry sat up groaned and rested his chin on Cedric's shoulder, there was no denying what they'd be caught doing.

'Hi Fleur,' Cedric said quietly, blushing faintly.

Fleur smiled, brushing her long golden hair away from her face. ''Ow long 'as zis been going on for?' she asked, her French accent coming through strongly.

'Just over a month,' Cedric muttered.

'Then it es no wonder you would not take me to ze Yule Ball,' Fleur said, coming closer towards them and sitting down elegantly a few paces away. 'But then you took that Cho Chang girl instead, why did you not take 'Arry?' she asked quizzically, waving a hand towards Harry. Harry was relieved to find she was more interesting and bemused then angered.

'It was better if we didn't go together,' Harry said to Fleur. 'For appearances sake.'

Fleur shook her head. 'But if zat was love then and it es love now, why do you still continue to 'ide it?'

Cedric looked towards Harry the same look relief was visible on both the boys faces.

'I do not understand you Briteesh, all ze French are very open about zere relationships,' she told them. 'Maybe you should theenk about zat, and stop 'iding behind trees.'

Harry hid his face in Cedric's hair trying to stop him from laughing. 'You won't tell anyone, will you?' he asked.

'You still weesh to hide zis?' she asked, and continued with a sour look when they both nodded. ''Arry, you saved my sister's life; I will keep zis secret for you.'

'Thanks Fleur,' Cedric grinned at her.

She stood and brushed herself down before smiling at the two and saying. 'Zat is fine, just 'ide in a better place next time, it was easy to see you both.'

Cedric leaned back, blowing strands of hair out of his face and rubbing his eyes. 'Oh thank god, I thought she might have been Cho!'

'Cho doesn't have a French accent, you dolt!'

Cedric grinned and pinned him down again, quickly kissing him, and licking his nose. He lay on his side next to Harry, and pulled of the boy's glasses placing them on his own face. Harry laughed and made a grab for them, but Cedric pulled away.

'You really are blind aren't you Harry, here you can have these back,' he said giving Harry back his glasses. 'They are really strong,' he grinned and kissed Harry again.

'Do you think she'll tell anyone?' Harry asked slipping his glasses back on.

No, I don't think so,' Cedric grinned and added. ''Arry Potter saved 'er sister's life.'

Harry shook his head. 'You have a terrible French accent,' he grinned.

'Et is ze language of love,' Cedric laughed, not at all bothered by Harry's remark. And then leaned down to kiss him fiercely, he stroked Harry's hair softly and the two rolled around in the grass kissing madly, until Cedric got up and pulled Harry up with him.

'Do you have to go so soon?' Harry asked Cedric, standing in his arms.

'Yeah, sorry Harry,' he said softly. 'I've got a detention with professor Flitwick.'

'Wow, Cedric Diggory the golden boy, did something wrong?' Harry teased.

'I didn't finish an essay,' he said.

'Why not?'

'I was too busy thinking about you,' Cedric said, ruffling Harry's hair affectionately and giving him a swift kiss, before jogging back towards the school.

* * *

'Potter!'

Harry stopped dead in his tracks his shoulders hunched up almost automatically at the sound of that cold voice. He forced a pleasant tone and turned around the face the potions master.

'Yes, Professor Snape?' he asked.

As the professor drew closer Harry noticed something slimy dangling from his fingers, the Gillyweed. Harry's stomach gave a horrible lurch; he hadn't until now thought about where Dobby had got the weed from, now he knew.

'What is this, Potter?' Snape asked him, speaking so violently spit flew from his mouth.

'Gillyweed, Professor,' Harry mumbled in a barely audible voice.

'I can't hear you, Potter.'

'It's Gillyweed,' Harry said louder this time.

'And you used Gillyweed during the second task, correct?' Snape sneered.

'Yes.'

'And where did you get the Gillyweed from?'

Harry didn't reply he was looking at Snape's face which was paler than usual. Harry supposed Snape turned an even whiter shade when he was angry.

'You got it from my private store, didn't you Potter?'

Harry still didn't utter a word, Snape was now hissing with anger. 'I'll take your silence as a confession,' he said. 'Detention, Tuesday night at six in my classroom,' and Snape turned and walked briskly down the corridor, shaking with anger.

* * *

Cedric was sitting in Professor Flitwick's office, his quill scratching away on the parchment, finishing off his essay. He yawned silently, running a hand through his hair. He looked to the clock, he still had an hour of detention to go and he'd already finished the essay. Cedric pushed the essay aside and pulled another piece of parchment out of his bag and began to write.

_Harry, _

His quill paused; he stared at Harry's name, faintly blushing when his mind rolled over that afternoon just a few hours ago. He smiled and chewed the end of his quill, a dreamy expression coming over his handsome face. He wanted to know how to tell Harry in the simplest way possible that he was completely head over heals for him. He didn't think regular make out sessions were enough. He dipped the tip of his quill back into the ink pot by him and continued writing.

_I'm sorry this afternoon had to end so quickly, and just when we were enjoying ourselves too. It's your fault that I'm in detention right now (I'm joking Harry, you know I am), we could still be out there together now, watching the sunset, falling asleep in each others arms… _

Cedric paused again, staring at what he'd written, it was unbelievably corny. He scrunched the parchment up and threw it in the bin, across the room. He couldn't write down his feelings for Harry, and he'd prefer to tell him in person anyway. _Much more romantic then a series of words written on a crummy piece of parchment, _Cedric grinned to himself, and slide out from behind the desk, handing his essay in to the tiny teacher.

He hummed to himself as he wandered back to the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room, which could be accessed some where near the kitchens. As he rounded the corner towards the kitchens he saw Cho leaning against the painting.

'Hi Cedric,' she said slinking up to him and kissing his cheek.

'Hey Cho,' he said, smiling at her.

'I was wondering, Ced,' Cedric flinched when she called him that. It was what Harry called him, and he much preferred Harry using than Cho. He let her continue anyway. 'If you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me?'

'When's the next trip down?' Cedric asked, stifling a yawn.

'In roughly two months.'

Cedric nearly laughed, she scheduled her dates early. 'Sorry, Cho,' he said quickly, happy for once that the Triwizard Tournament got in the way of things. 'The third task is roughly in two months,' he shrugged in apology.

Cho wrapped her arms around his waist; Cedric was surprised, because they'd barely talked since the Yule Ball. 'That's okay Ced,' she simpered. 'I'm sure there will be other times,' and she pressed her lips to his.

The boy felt nothing from her kiss, nothing. When he kissed Harry he felt happy, excited and loved amongst many other things, and he felt all those things in a rush of emotion. All Cedric felt from Cho's kiss was annoyance, annoyance that she'd just flung herself on him. He pushed her off, and mumbled some excuse about homework and fled into the safety of the Hufflepuff common room.

* * *

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	7. Astronomy Tower

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything related to Harry Potter.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory.

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART SEVEN**

Harry heard chair legs scraping along the floor, and the soft tapping of feet walking towards him. He didn't look up, he didn't have to, he didn't want to. Instead he grimaced, and kept his head down, staring forward into the blackness before his eyes. Picking up the scrubbing brush, he scrubbed at the dirt staining the cauldron harder. Pressing down so hard, and imagining he was grinding Snape's face into the cold stone of his own classroom.

The rhythm of feet stopped, out of the corner of his eye Harry could see the neatly polished shoes, so clean he could almost make out his face in them. Snape leaned over to inspect his work, he laughed coldly. 'You call this _clean,_ Potter?' he asked dryly, he received no response so he pressed on. 'Neville Longbottom could actually pass this class before you get that cauldron anywhere near clean.'

Snape must have seen Harry's shoulders stiffen with anger. 'Don't like me insulting your friends, Potter?' he sneered, Harry waited for more insults to come but instead none came. Snape straightened up and pointed to an extremely large cauldron sitting by his desk. 'Clean that now.'

Harry eased himself to his feet, cringing as his stiff joints refused. He'd been cleaning that soot stained cauldron for nearly an hour without changing positions. He hobbled over to his next task and felt his eyes water from the pain as he knelt down beside it and used his wand to send a torrent of water in to it. Rolling up his sleeve, he grabbed the scrubbing brush and plunged his arm into the icy water. It irritated him that he still had difficulty producing warm water, he had to be content with freezing cold instead. As he busied himself, Snape began to talk. Well, not actually talk, but insult him some more and teach him a lesson.

'Are you going to admit that you took the Gillyweed from my office?' Snape asked, Harry couldn't tell if he was looking at him or not, his greasy hair was covering his face like veil.

Rage was building up inside of him again, he never taken the stupid Gillyweed! 'No, because I didn't take it!' he said loudly, his voice echoing inside the dirty pot in front of him. It was like cleaning an oven, except worse. He didn't know what was inside these bloody cauldrons and Snape hadn't given him any gloves, so he had to avoid touching the remainders of potions at all costs.

'Then, how, Potter,' Snape hissed, his anger rising also, 'can you explain the fact that you suddenly found you had gills and webbed limbs? Professor McGonagall assures me that you have not covered human transfiguration yet,' he sneered. 'And I highly doubt you are capable enough to learn such advanced magic in your free time!'

Harry seriously considered saying that he spent to much time around Snape in class that he was turning into a slimy git. He didn't want to tell Snape that Dobby had given him the weed, because then the elf would be punished. 'I didn't take the Gillyweed from your stores, Professor,' he said more calmly.

'Gillyweed is an extremely rare and tremendously expensive ingredient,' Snape said, his dark eyes glinting with hate. 'It has never been in any potions you have attempted to brew and cannot be purchased at any shop in Hogsmeade, so I ask you once more,' he hissed, his face dangerous close to Harry's now, 'how did you get it?'

Harry bit his lip, unable to give an answer that wouldn't get Dobby or himself into more trouble. Ultimately, Harry considered his best chances of getting out of this were if he stood up and merely ran from the dungeon room. He remained silent for a while, scrubbing hard. But eventually he opened his mouth and spoke.

'I-I can't answer that question, Professor,' he stuttered. Whipping sweat from his brow, even though the room was freezing cold, and refusing to meet the man's eyes.

'Then you'd better scrub as many cauldrons as it takes to get the truth out of you, or I could,' he paused, his eyes glinted malevolently and reached a pale ghost like hand into the drawer of his desk, pulling out a small crystal bottle. 'Do you know what this is, Potter,' he asked.

The crystal bottle reflected light, what little light there was in the dark dingy dungeon, so it appeared to gleam dazzlingly. Peering at the liquid sloshing around inside, he discovered the potion was a dull blue colour. Harry shook his head; he'd never seen this potion before.

'This is Veritaserum,' Snape informed him. 'One drop of this enough to make you spill all your deepest and most personal secrets. If I find any more items have been taken from my personal store, my hand might just slip,' he used gestures to empathies his point, 'over your morning pumpkin juice.'

A small gasp escaped his throat. The thought of him uncontrollably spilling all his secrets for anyone who happened to be in the great hall during breakfast time was horrible. He imagined announcing loudly to everyone who wished to hear that he was madly in love with Cedric Diggory, the other Hogwarts Champion. The scene that unraveled in his mind made him scrunch his face up and try to get the image out of his mind.

'Not so keen on that happening, I see Potter,' Snape observed. 'That is satisfactory,' he added, looking down at the cauldron that had just over gone a vigorous cleaning. 'You may start on those ones, in the corner.'

Muttering something rude about Snape, Harry stood and made his way over towards the other cauldrons, his knees shaking. Just as he was about to kneel down again to begin his third task of the evening, there was a loud heavy knock on the classroom door. Harry turned his head to see who it was, he prayed that it wasn't Malfoy or any Slytherin or he'd be subjected to horrible taunts the next day. To his relief and joy it wasn't any Slytherin, but instead Cedric stood there. Looking considerably out of breathe, with his hair looked wind swept, Harry blushed, he looked amazingly handsome when he was out of breathe. But Harry always thought he looked good.

'Professor Snape?' he asked nervously.

"What is it Diggory?' Snape snapped at him.

'Professor McGonagall needs to speak with all the Champions in her office now,' Cedric said. 'That means Harry too,' he added, because Snape was looking like what Cedric had just said meant nothing.

'Thank you, Diggory,' he said. 'I am perfectly aware that Potter is a Champion, you can go,' he muttered to Harry. 'But if I catch you in my stores once again…'

Harry stood and practically ran out of the room; his keenness to get away did not go unnoticed by Cedric as he reached his side. Cedric carefully closed the door behind them and pulled Harry into a kiss. 'You all right, Harry?' he asked, concern clear in his soft voice. Harry's knees had buckled under the pressure from Cedric's kiss; they were still sore and weak from the hours of kneeling on the hard stone.

'Yeah,' Harry said, wrapping his arms around Cedric. 'My knees are just sore; I was kneeling down for a long time.'

'What were you doing?' Cedric asked raising an eyebrow.

'Scrubbing cauldrons,' Harry said, slapping him gently on the wrist. 'You have a dirty mind Ced,' he teased. 'So what does the professor want to talk to us about?'

'Nothing,' Cedric said. 'Absolutely nothing,' he grinned, obviously deeply pleased with himself.

'Cedric!' Harry wailed. 'You didn't?'

'If you define didn't as: pulling you out of detention with a made up excuse, then yeah,' he smiled, 'I guess I did.'

'When Snape finds out, I'm going to be in so much trouble!' Harry said, though he as smiling all the same. 'And so will you!'

'I don't care, I just want to spend time with you,' Cedric grinned, and grabbed his elbow pulling him through the corridors that were now lit by candles. They ran down the stairs towards the kitchens.

'Ced, were are we going?' asked Harry, looking around him. 'And what time is it?'

'It is half past seven,' he told Harry, 'and we are going to my dormitory.'

This stopped Harry dead in his tracks. What did Cedric want to do? There was no way Harry would do that, not even with him, he was just too young. 'To do what Cedric?' he asked a little nervously.

Cedric sighed softly, and looked some what apologetic. 'Harry, I didn't mean to do _that, _I just meant we could there and talk, the boys who I share the dorm with now, Harry I told them, I wouldn't try anything with them around,' he promised, stroking Harry's cheek.

'Sorry I jumped to conclusions, Ced,' he said. 'Do we have to go there though? I don't really want everyone watching us.'

'No, we don't have to go there, I thought it would be a good place though, because of what Fleur said,' Cedric smiled at the memory. 'That we have to be more careful about where we hide.'

'Hang on,' Harry said, pulling his bag of his shoulder and fishing around for the Marauders Map. He pulled it out triumphantly and rolled it open.

'Harry,' Cedric asked, looking at the parchment and trying not to laugh at the excited look on Harry's face. 'What's that? It's nothing but a plank piece of parchment.'

'Watch this,' he grinned up at Cedric and whispered the words. '_I solemnly swear I am up to no good.' _

A detailed map of Hogwarts and its grounds appeared on the map, Harry watched Cedric as his eyes widened in amazement. The older boy placed one finger on the map that showed their positions. His grey eyes darted around the map, he briefly watched Dumbledore pacing backwards and forwards in his office before he said anything to Harry.

'Harry, where did you get this?' he breathed out in absolute awe. 'This- this is amazing.'

'It was a gift,' he grinned. 'Look,' Harry pointed to one of Astronomy Towers. 'There is no one there, or any where near it, we can go there.'

Cedric nodded and let Harry drag him off, up the many flights of stairs it took to reach the tower. 'So, that map, does it show everyone in the castle?'

'Only people in the corridors,' Harry said. 'It doesn't have the dormitories on it,' he was still holding the map, and watching it to see if any teachers or students where coming their way.

'Wow, that's incredible,' Cedric said.

They reached the Astronomy Tower, panting and breathless. The two boys hadn't run into any trouble on their way up here, but they had had to dive behind a statue in order to escape from Mrs. Norris. Cedric placed a hand on Harry's waist as they entered the tower. The tower was small and compact, with tables and chairs bundled closely together. The thing that amazed Harry the most was the glass dome in the ceiling that looked up at the sky.

'Too bad it's cloudy,' Cedric said softly. 'It's a real treat when the sky is clear at night, the stars shine so brightly.'

Harry stood on tip toes and kissed his cheek tenderly, this brought Cedric back down to earth and he sat at one of the tables and pulled a chair out for Harry, who gladly took it. 'Do you think I should leave the map open?' he asked Cedric. 'You know to see if anyone is coming?'

Cedric shook his head, and kissed Harry. 'You can put it away, love. No one comes up here on Sundays.'

Harry flushed, Cedric had called him _love. _He looked at the older boy; the look on Cedric's face gave no hint that he'd realized what he had just said. Harry's insides where parading around with joy, he loved the expression on Cedric's face when he'd called him that. 'Mischief managed,' he whispered to the map, tapping it with his wand. Stuffing both the wand and the map into his bag, he pulled his chair closers to Cedric's and hugged him tightly.

'Harry?' he asked, after a moment of hush.

'Yes?' Harry asked, stilling hugging Cedric.

'What was it that you were going to say to me down by the lake before Fleur came?'

'Oh,' Harry was blushing so deeply now, he hid his face in Cedric's chest. He was nearly falling out of his chair; Cedric laughed quietly, and pulled Harry over onto his lap.

'You're blushing Harry,' Cedric mused, kissing his hot cheek, and stroking hair out of his eyes.

Harry blushed more at Cedric's comment, he suddenly decided he'd just go for it. Tell him how he felt straight up. 'Ced, I-' he paused to kiss Cedric, he couldn't resist kissing him then, they way the older boy was looking up at him was beautiful. 'Ced, I love you.'

For a moment, though it seemed like forever to Harry, Cedric was silent, he'd turned away from Harry but his arm was still firmly around Harry's waist. Finally he turned to face Harry again, with a smile on his face, and his cheeks, like Harry's were rosy. 'Harry,' he murmured, very quietly. 'I feel the same, I love you.'

* * *

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	8. Cho, Hermione and Ron

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything related to Harry Potter.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory. Some swearing, on Ron's part mainly. 

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART EIGHT**

Ignoring the inquiries of the Fat Lady, Harry climbed back through into the Gryffindor common room, looking around him. He hadn't come in that late, it was only half past nine, he'd been out later then that and the Fat Lady hadn't bothered him those times. Harry looked around the common room again, yawning as he did so. Laughing to himself he though, _make out sessions with Ced really do take it out of you. _He grinned as he flopped down in an arm chair facing the fire place.

'Hey Harry!' the cheerful voice nearly gave him a heart attack. He turned around in the chair and saw Hermione sitting at one of the large tables.

'Oh, Hermione,' he grinned, still recovering from the shock. 'Are you still doing homework?'

'Yes, I am _still _doing homework,' she said, bending her bushy head back over her work, the quill in her hand beginning to scribble ferociously. 'How was detention?'

'Terrible,' Harry told her, 'Snape had me scrubbing cauldrons for nearly an hour and a half.'

Hermione looked up at him with a curious expression on her face. 'Why are you back so late then, you left at six, and now,' she paused to look at a clock, 'now its nine thirty.'

Mumbling some excuse, Harry ran a hand through his hair, nervously. He'd probably have to tell her, now or later. 'Uh-' Harry decided to tell a lie first, to see if she ate it up. 'I was studying, at the library.'

'No, you weren't.' Hermione informed him. 'I was there at seven until eight thirty,' she raised an eyebrow as she waited for his reply. She began tapping her quill on the side of the table, staring at him in the most unnerving manor.

'Hermione, would you stop that!' he said loudly, relieved when she obliged and stopped playing with the quill. 'Ok, fine, I wasn't in the library.'

'Yes, I know _that._'

'I was with Cedric Diggory.'

This didn't cause the reaction Harry had expected, he frowned as Hermione pressed on with her questions. She hadn't got what he'd really meant. 'Were you talking about the last task?' she asked her eyes back on her assignment.

'Err, no,' he grimaced, 'not really.'

This time Hermione sat up so quickly she knocked her ink bottle to the floor, she was staring at him with such intensity, and Harry was scared to look away. Making no move to clean up the spilt ink as it seeped into the carpet, leaving an ugly black mark she finally spoke. 'So, you two, have you been, you _and_ Cedric are you together?' she spluttered at last getting the question out.

'Well, yeah.'

'Have you been, you know, _going at it_?' she brought her voice down the tiniest of whispers as she said those words. Obviously she didn't know a better way to phrase that sentence, and Harry was a little annoyed at the roughness and rudeness of the saying.

'Hermione!' Harry said, taken aback a little. 'No, of course not!'

She was silent for the time being, staring at him and then back at her work, her eyes flicked between the two for some time, before she coughed and said seriously. 'Does Cho know?'

'No,' Harry admitted.

'I thought that she and Cedric were a pair?' she asked in a half questioning tone and a tone that was accusing, as if to suggest that Harry had come between them.

'I thought so too,' Harry said and began explaining everything. Once he'd finished he looked over at Hermione, watching her expression.

'Don't you think,' she said slowly her voice thickening with fury, 'that Cho has a right to know?'

Harry shrugged. 'It's Cedric's choice if he tells her or not.'

Hermione was beginning to shake in anger, and she snapped her quill in half by accident. 'Harry!' she yelled. 'Don't you think you should take into account other peoples feelings before you go and do something so reckless? Doesn't it bother you that Cho could be very upset from what you are doing!?'

'Hermione, it's not just me involved in this!' he shouted back. 'I'm not the one who should be telling her this, Cedric should!'

'You don't take into account the feelings of other people! It's not just about you!'

'I never said it was just all about me!'

'YOU'VE CERTAINLY BEEN ACTING THAT WAY FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS, IGNORING EVERYONE ELSE AROUND YOU, FOCUSING ON YOURSELF; YOU HAVEN'T EVEN BOTHERED TO NOTICE THAT RON AND I ARE NOT TALKING AT THIS POINT.'

'For gods sake, Hermione!' he yelled back to her, but his voice not reaching the volume hers had been at. 'I have a lot on my mind, with Sirius still on the run, and the Triwizard Tournament! It's a lot to worry about!'

'Well,' said Hermione sharply, gathering up her books and thrusting them roughly into her bag. 'I'm going to bed,' she paused to clean up the ink spill and then charged up the stairs to the girls dormitories.

As he stared after her, he felt a little down hearted. He raised himself from the chair, using the arms rests to support himself and began to pace the room. She hadn't given him any words of encouragement, or any to show that she supported him and accepted him. Instead she'd sounded rude and nasty about the whole subject. And Harry hadn't the slightest about why she had reacted in that manor. Thinking back he remembered that Ron was just annoyed that Harry had been doing these things with Cedric, anyone else (apart from Malfoy) and he would have been just fine with it. He was fine with it, she wasn't. Harry had always understood Hermione to be the more logical one of the three; couldn't she see that not everyone can be straight? Suddenly a horrid thought dawned on him, what if she was upset because Cedric hadn't told Cho and was still pretending to like her, what if she told Cho about their secret? Had Harry really been ignoring everyone around him, surely not? Anyway, even if he had been he was allowed too, after all being in the tournament took a lot of effort, time and concentration. Shaking his head, Harry walked towards the boys' dormitories. Hermione wouldn't do that, she was too much of a good friend.

Ron was awake and reading when Harry entered the dorm, and so was Dean and Neville, but Seamus was snoring loudly with his face buried in his pillow. He smiled at Dean and Neville, who barely noticed him as they were busy trading Chocolate Frogs cards. Ron put his book down when he saw Harry come in. Harry was relieved to find that none of them were looking at him in an awkward way, which meant they hadn't heard the row going on below them.

'Hey mate,' he grinned. 'How was detention with Snape?'

'Terrible,' he moaned, flopping down on his bed. 'And then Hermione had a real go at me for ignoring everyone around me, and not even noticing that you and her haven't been talking,' he paused to think about what had caused the argument initially. 'She got annoyed at me that Cho doesn't know about me and Cedric.'

'Hermione's been totally weird lately, she only hasn't been speaking to me since yesterday when I wouldn't let her borrow my quill,' he rolled his eyes. 'It was my last one,' he explained.

'God, she went totally mental though. Screaming and yelling at me, it was crazy.'

'Yeah, she's been in the strangest mood,' then Ron laughed. 'Girls, eh? I never will understand them.'

'Do you think we should talk to her tomorrow about it?' Harry asked, laughing with Ron.

'No, man, no,' he said. 'Whenever mum got like this we just didn't talk to her until it had all blown over, same with Ginny, only she hardly ever gets as angry and upset as mum or Hermione.'

Harry nodded, he hoped Hermione's bad mood would blow over; he didn't want to talk to her in this state. She'd probably hex his head off.

* * *

It wasn't until lunch that the whispering, pointing and the shocked looks started. Harry was walking down to lunch with Ron when he noticed people pointing and murmuring at and about him. Firstly he didn't think any thing of it as people where always drawing attention to him. He shrugged at Ron's quizzical look and they walked into the great hall.

As they entered there was silence, nearly the entire hall was staring at him, including people from Beaubatons and Durmstrang. The clattering of cutlery being dropped on a plate seemed to awaken the school from its trance, and talking broke out once again. Ron grabbed Harry's sleeve and pulled him towards the Gryffindor table, he was aware of all the eyes watching him as he walked. 'Do you know what's up?' he asked Ron as they sat down beside each other. Ron looked at startled as Harry felt. He was used to people staring, but he usual knew why, this time it was unexplainable.

Many of the Gryffindor's were staring at him also. 'What?' Harry asked them, feeling nervous under the stare of all the eyes.

'You and Cedric, huh?' George Weasley asked him, with a grin on his face. 'Way to go Harry!'

'_What?_' Harry said, squeaking in shock. 'How do-, how do you know?' There was no point in trying to push the rumors aside, someone who had known had told.

'It's all over the school,' Fred said, coming to sit beside his twin. 'Everyone knows. Cho is in a right state,' he grinned and pointed over to the Ravenclaw table.

Harry grimaced, she probably shouldn't have come down to breakfast today and neither should he. She looked terrible, mascara was running down her face and her eyes were puffy and blood shot, when she noticed Harry watching from the table, she shot him a glare that churned his insides. He quickly tore his eyes and stared at his breakfast, but he wasn't hungry.

'Did you tell anyone?' he asked Ron in a low voice.

'No,' Ron shook his head, looking as nervous as Harry felt.

'Then who-' he was interrupted by a loud cough from behind him. His shoulders immediately hunched and he slowly turned around in his chair.

Cho Chang.

Cho was standing behind him, backed up by a group of Ravenclaw students. She looked even worse up close, her skin was blotchy and her hair untidy, Cho had had a rough night. Harry stood slowly, he was taller than her when he stood, but that didn't make her any less intimidating.

'Harry, you prick,' she hissed loudly. Harry was sure everyone in the hall had stopped breakfasting to tune into their little morning pleasantries.

'I-' he only managed to get one word out before he felt a hard hand come into contact with his face, he felt his eyes watering and he blinked furiously to keep the tears in.

'Little faggot,' she said quietly, she marched off back to the Ravenclaw table with her friends in tow. Harry heard a few muffled cheers coming from the Slytherin table; Malfoy was certainly enjoying the morning entertainments.

Bending down to pick up his bag and books he heard George and Fred whispering.

'That was out of order.'

'Yeah, but he did steal her boyfriend.'

Harry ran from the hall, holding a hand to his smarting cheek. Who ever told Cho was going to get hell from him. As he fled, he heard laughter from the hall. He closed his eyes desperately trying to keep the tears in. As he ran up the last flight of stairs towards Gryffindor tower, he hurtled straight into Hermione. It suddenly all clicked into place.

Harry stood rooted to the stop as she bent down to pick up her books. 'You told her didn't you?' he asked softly, it had meant to come out more aggressively.

Hermione stood up, flicking her dark hair behind her shoulder and staring Harry in the eyes. She seemed entirely serene. 'Yes, Harry, yes I did. I told you she had a right to know.'

Harry ran his hands through his hair, seething with anger now. '_Hermione!' _he said loudly, in what he hoped was a livid tone. 'How could you? You know, I thought you were my friend, I thought you could keep a secret like that for me!'

'You never said it was a secret,' she replied, her voice never changing.

'How could you not know that!?' he shouted. 'If it wasn't a secret, the school would have found out in a different way! Not this way. How could you?' he repeated, and barged past her up the common room.

Hermione shrugged, reset her bag on her shoulders and walked forward. She didn't care, she didn't want to care. Cho deserved a right to know, and Hermione didn't care what her knowing caused Harry. If it caused Harry to lose Cedric, fine. No one deserved to be left in the dark like that. She flicked her hair over her shoulder again, and walked down the stairs bearing a smug look.

As soon as Harry had left the hall, Ron had picked up an orange and biffed it in Cho's direction, aiming for her head. Unfortunately it missed, and landed in her porridge splattering chunks over her face. Ron would have liked for the orange to have smacked her in the head, but a splattering of porridge was good enough. Then with a smug grin on his face he raced after Harry. He had paused with horror and shock when he'd heard his conversation with Hermione. She had told Cho, oh she had some nerve!

When Hermione rounded the corner, he grabbed her shoulders and glared at her. 'Hermione, what the hell did you do that for?'

'Cho had the right to know!' Hermione repeated, beginning to lose her temper, she didn't want to have the same talk twice.

'So you think Cho is more important than keeping secrets for Harry, WHO IS OUR FRIEND!' Ron bellowed, turning a bright shade of red. 'Or used to be your friend, I'm not sure if he'll be able to forgive you for that one Hermione.

'I never said Cho was more important than Harry!' Hermione yelled back, her hand on her hip. When she took this posture, it usually was a warning sign for anyone arguing with her. But Ron ignored it.

'Yeah, you implied that she was!'

'How?' Hermione hissed.

'By going and telling Cho basically right after Harry confesses something that changes everything for him,' Ron said lowering his voice. 'He told you he was gay, Hermione. And you didn't show any signs of accepting him for who he is, you flung it back in his face by telling Cho that he was going around with Cedric. Shit, Hermione, I would have thought you had more brains then this.'

'He-he told you?' Hermione asked.

'Yeah!' Ron decided not to add the bit about unintentionally stumbling across them at the Yule Ball. 'I acted like a true friend, I supported him.'

Hermione didn't say anything, she blinked several times keeping eye contact with Ron though. After a staring contest that lasted only seconds, she pushed past Ron muttering a hurried, 'excuse me,' and disappeared around the corner. Ron stared after her, shaking with anger. He couldn't believe what Hermione had done.

* * *

Harry sat on his bed, with the red curtains drawn around him. He held his pillow to his chest, unmoving just staring right ahead into the material before him. He knew lunch was over and the afternoon classes had just begun, but double Charms with the Ravenclaw's were something he didn't feel up too. His throat felt dry and sore, he kept thinking he should go and find Cedric, but he decided against it. Cedric was most likely having a hard time with this too. He felt another tear glide down his cheek; he made no move to ebb the flow that followed. Hermione, he hated her right now. She had screwed him over so badly. Why had she done it as well, what was it in for her? As far as Harry could see, Hermione benefited nothing from this apart from making Harry miserable. What if Cedric didn't want anything to do with him now? Just after they had announced their love as well, Harry chocked back another bout of tears.

The door creaked open and he heard Ron's voice echoing through the room. 'Hey, Harry,' he said, pulling back the hangings around his bed. When Ron saw his face he instantly pulled his friend into a hug and whispered in his ear. 'What Hermione did was just low Harry, bloody low.'

Harry made a feeble attempt to smile. 'Did you hear?' he asked, sniffing again and gratefully accepting the tissue Ron held out for him.

'Yeah, she was way out of line by telling Cho,' he told him, sitting beside him on the bed. 'I thought when she told Professor McGonagall about your Firebolt, I thought that was low, but this is just way out of line.'

Harry nodded. 'I don't know why she even did it though,' he whipped his eyes with the tissue and handed it back to Ron.

'Why don't you keep it Harry,' he smiled. 'Yeah, I don't know either.'

'It's not like she would have gained anything from telling her, I don't ever want to speak to her again,' Harry said, pulling of his glasses and rubbing them clean.

'I don't blame you mate, I'm not going to speak to her for a ruddy long time!' Harry laughed at the mock angry expression Ron put on. Ron peered at Harry's cheek. 'Wow, Cho got you hard there!'

'Yeah,' Harry said, rubbing his red cheek. 'Hey, Ron?'

'Yes?'

'Do you think the whole school knowing will change things between Cedric and me?' he asked timidly.

His read headed friend looked him in the eye. 'Harry,' he said seriously. 'How much do you like him?'

'Heaps.'

'And how much does he like you?'

Harry blushed and mumbled, 'lots.'

'Then it shouldn't change anything!' Ron smiled at him and gave him another quick hug.

'Thanks Ron,' Harry said. 'I just needed to hear that.'

* * *

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	9. Whispering

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything related to Harry Potter.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory. 

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART NINE**

Harry trudged through the corridors, his green eyes glued to the ground before him. Taunts and whispers were following him and Ron as they hurried between classes, Harry tried to ignore each harsh insult that was thrown his way, and Ron recently had to restrain him from casting a nasty hex at Pansy Parkinson when she said something extraordinarily rude and witty about him. Even her fellow Slytherin's were staring at her in shock. But as soon as Harry had calmed down enough, he'd attached his eyes to the floor again and was sulking away again, watching the colours of the carpet changed as they walked through the school.

He'd never felt this terrible in his life, the rumors had only started yesterday and he'd spent the whole night crying. Harry had desperately wanted to stay in the safety of his bed today, but Ron and Seamus and persuaded him to make an appearance. And worst of all, he still hadn't seen Cedric since, Harry needed to speak with him so badly, he wanted reassurance that they could get through this together. Ron and Seamus' words of encouragement were simply not enough.

The worst part of his morning came during Potions, usually bad any day but today was exceptionally bad. Mafloy spent the lesson pretending that his hand was Cedric and he was Harry, by the end of the lesson his hand was quite damp. Another horrible thing about potions was that he had forgotten that he was partnered with Hermione for an assignment. He felt he was lucky that the assignment required little communication, so for most of the lesson he sat slumped at his desk, ignoring Malfoy and the taunting teasing whispers and remarks that circled around the classroom. Only once did Hermione talk to him, and that was to ask if he could put something in the large bubbling cauldron. Harry obliged by throwing the ingredient into the cauldron and ended up splattering the frothy mix all over Hermione's robes. Ron laughed and Seamus snickered as Hermione whipped down her robes with a look that could murder on her face.

'If looks could kill …' Seamus had muttered.

He was grateful that Seamus was quite happy to be around him, he had offered some comforting words this morning when he and Ron had spoken to Harry. Seamus had also snapped at Dean when he'd muttered something vulgar about Cedric. Only two of his dorm mates were speaking to him, Neville had squeaked and squirmed nervously whenever he'd had to talk to Harry but Dean had and still was disregarding him. It had only been one day and Harry felt as though his world had been turned upside down.

The bell rang, ringing over the noise and gabble of the students. There was rush to pack bags and get out of the dingy potions room, Harry joined the rush, leaving Hermione to clean up the cauldron he quickly left following Ron and Seamus. 'What have we got now?' he asked, sourly as Draco walked past, making out with his hand again. He was about to pull a rude gesture when Snape walked past.

'Uh,' Ron swung his bag around and fumbled through it. 'We have class with Hagrid now.'

Harry sighed, thoroughly relieved. Some fresh air would do him good, and he wouldn't have to sit in a dingy classroom for the next lesson. He and Ron were working together at the moment, so he wouldn't have to worry about Hermione, and he'd already decided if Malfoy said something he'd hex him so badly he'd end up hospitalized. Stupid git, with his stupid blonde hair, Harry fumed as Malfoy walked past again, crying things like 'oh Cedric!' trying to force a reaction from Harry.

'Ignore him Harry,' Seamus said. 'He is a right git through and through.'

The three walked through the entrance way of the castle and were about to open the doors when someone grabbed Harry's arm. Harry was about shake the person off, and tempted to cast a spell at them when he realized it was Fleur.

''Arry,' she panted, pushing her blonde hair out of her face.

Harry heard Ron and Seamus mumbling amongst them, he picked up the phrases _veela, oh my god_ and _she'd so like me more than you, _before tuning in fully to what Fleur was saying.

''Arry,' she repeated. 'I 'ave just taken Cedric to ze 'ospatil wing, I thought zat you should know.'

'What?' Harry gasped. 'Why?'

'That Ravenclaw girl, Marietta with ze big bushy 'air cursed 'im,' she said hurriedly, 'I thought you would want to see 'im.'

Harry nodded and turned around to Ron and Seamus. 'Could you tell Hagrid that I probably won't be in class,' he asked, with a forced apologetic smile.

Fleur grabbed his arm and pulled him along beside her to the hospital wing.

'Is he okay?' Harry asked, nervously. He feverishly hoped he was alright. As they passed a mirror Harry caught a glimpse of himself, he was a pale white colour, like a ghost.

''e, should be fine,' she assured him. 'But 'e knocked 'is 'ead when 'e fell.'

* * *

Harry peered nervously around the big wooden doors that led into the wing, he spent more time here than he would like, and now he was here for Cedric, his feeling of anxiety worsened. The Hospital Wing was white; everything was white, except for the wood of the doors and bedsteads. Harry blinked, shielding his eyes from the glare the sun caused as it beamed in through the windows. He looked around for Cedric, but instead came face to face with Madam Pomfrey. Stepping backwards out of shock, he nearly tripped over a bed.

'Can I help you, Mr. Potter?' she said, clicking her tongue impatiently, with her hands on her hips.

'Ah,' Harry said weakly, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. 'I'm here to see Cedric Diggory.'

'He is over in the far bed,' the healer said, turning around so violently her long dress whipped around with her. She motioned for Harry to follow her. 'Miss Delacour warned me you might be coming to see him. Did she say what happened?'

'She explained some of it,' he said, wringing his hands together nervously.

'Well, one of Miss Chang's friends cast _Petrificus Totalus _on the poor boy,' she explained, adjusting her white apron as she walked. 'Yes Mr. Potter, I have heard the story,' she said when Harry looked at her wondering why she would know that Cho's friend was behind it, 'and anyway, when he fell back he knocked his head quite heavily on a statue, he is out cold.'

Harry nodded, whipping his forehead.

'Are you okay, Mr. Potter?' she asked, placing a hand to his forehead. 'You do look rather pale.'

'I'm fine, just fine,' he thanked her as she left him at Cedric's bedside.

Easing himself into a chair, Harry looked at him and sighed. His eyes were shut, but his chest was moving steadily up and down, there was a bruise on his right temple where he had smacked into the statue. He looked dreadfully pale.

'He'll be right in a day or so,' he heard Madam Pomfrey mutter, as she clattered around in some cabinets. 'So don't you fret about him.'

Harry nodded and clasped Cedric's hand, he was cold. Freezing cold. Harry grabbed the spare blanket that was at the end of the bed and drew it up around him, hoping to warm him up. As he sat back down, he grabbed Cedric's hand again, kissing it gently.

'Madam Pomfrey?' he asked gingerly.

'Yes?' came the reply, she was bending over another patient.

'Is it ok if I stay a while?'

'I have no objections Mr. Potter.'

Blinking, Harry opened his eyes. The ward was now lit by candles, all the sunlight had vanished from the room. He could see Madam Pomfrey fussing over her other patients, and then he suddenly remembered where he was. Sitting bolt upright Harry looked down into the bed beside, he heaved a huge sigh of relief to see that Cedric was now resting on his side, breathing heavily.

'He woke a few hours ago, when you were sleeping,' he heard Madam Pomfrey's voice jut out into the eerie silence of the room. 'He's perfectly fine; I just want to keep him here over night'

Nodding Harry moved from the chair and knelt beside Cedric's bed, the cold floor pinched at his knees, but he didn't care. He stroked Cedric's face gently, running his thumb over the smooth skin. Cedric's eyes fluttered open, revealing those beautiful grey eyes that Harry adored.

'Hey,' Harry said quietly, smiling down at him.

Cedric smiled back. 'Come here,' he said, pulling on Harry's arm.

Harry leaned down closer to Cedric, and kissed him firmly on the lips. When they pulled apart Harry said, 'You're a light sleeper, Ced.'

'And you're a heavy sleeper,' he grinned. 'When I woke up Madam Pomfrey made a huge fuss, and you slept right through it.'

Harry laughed, and kissed him again, parting his lips and slipping his tongue inside Cedric's mouth. He was so relieved that Cedric was ok; when they broke apart Harry gave him a long lasting hug, and buried his head into the crook of Cedric's neck. Cedric patted the side of the bed, and Harry accepting the offer and climbed up beside him.

'How are you feeling?' he asked Cedric, resting his head on the pillow next the older boy's.

'Fine, much better now that you're here and awake,' he added, laughing softly. 'How have things been for you?'

'Cho slapped me,' Harry said.

Cedric tried not to laugh, but failed. 'She slapped you?' he giggled.

'Yeah, and she hits hard!' said Harry, resting his head on Cedric's shoulder. 'Lots of harsh comments and whispering,' he added.

'Same for me,' Cedric said. 'And then Marietta cursed me.'

'I'm so sorry Ced,' Harry said.

'Why? I'm fine now.'

'No, I don't mean for that,' he said quietly. 'Hermione told Cho.'

He felt Cedric's sharp intake of breath. 'I thought she was your friend?'

'So did I.'

'Mm,' Cedric said quietly. 'Are you ok, with everyone knowing?'

'I don't mind, they will all get over it soon enough?' Harry said, but instead a question came out.

'I'm sure they will,' Cedric assured him. 'This doesn't change anything between us.'

Harry smiled as they kissed again. This time Harry felt Cedric's hands on his chest, slipping up under his robes, he shivered under his touch. 'I love you,' he heard Cedric whisper.

'I love you too,' he replied, kissing him strongly.

'Ahem,' Harry rolled of Cedric and saw Madam Pomfrey looking down at them, her mouth in a thin line. But Harry swore he saw a faint curve of a smile. 'I'm terribly sorry to break this up, but it's nearly eight o'clock and no visitors after eight,' she pointing at a sign that clearly stated this.

'I'll be out in a second Madam Pomfrey,' Harry promised. She nodded and left the boy's alone to say their goodnights.

'I should go,' Harry said, smiling an apology to Cedric.

'Aw, do you have to?' he asked, staring up at Harry. 'It's lonely here at night.'

'Sorry, Ced,' he said, kissing him lightly on the check. 'Good night,' he stood and began walking backwards towards the door.

'Night, Harry,' Cedric said, blowing him a kiss.

* * *

Harry practically skipped all the way back to the Gryffindor tower, still blushing from his talk with Cedric. But then suddenly he crashed into Malfoy as he rounded the corner.

'_Malfoy,' _he hissed, drawing his wand without delay. 'What are you doing here?'

'I was looking for that mudblood Granger,' for once Harry wasn't bothered by the use of the word. Malfoy continued, a look of irritation crossing his face when he saw Harry showed no reaction. 'I wanted to congratulate her on embarrassing both champion's so successfully.'

Harry was disappointed, Malfoy's insults weren't normally this bad. 'Jealous, Malfoy?'

Malfoy smirked. 'Of that mudblood no, but she finally saw you for what you are.'

'And what's that?'

What Malfoy said next made Harry so angry, he froze unable to move. 'You take that back!' he shouted, pointing his wand directly between the blonde's eyes.

Malfoy smirked. 'Or what, Potter?'

Harry was about to open his mouth and scream the incantation for a spell, but he felt his wand being wrenched out of his grip. He whirled around and saw Professor McGonagall standing there a highly disapproving look on her face.

'Malfoy, lower you wand!' she said, raising an eyebrow at him. 'Twenty points from Slytherin,' she added, ignoring Malfoy's gasp of annoyance, 'for provoking Mr. Potter.'

Malfoy glowered and stalked off down the corridor, Harry was surprised he had retreated that quickly.

'As for you Mr. Potter, twenty five points taken also,' she paused to hand him back his wand. 'I would give you detention, but things are hard for you now,' she said in an understanding tone but that quickly changed when she barked an order at him. 'BED, now!'

* * *

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	10. Genius in the Form of Confectionary

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything related to Harry Potter.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory. 

Please read and review!

Sorry, I had to take this down quickly, realized I had some errors that needed fixing. Hope you all enjoy!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART TEN**

'Do you reckon we should get Hermione back?' Seamus asked, chucking another log into the already blazing fire. It'd had been three days since Cedric had gotten out of the hospital wing, but he and Harry were still facing harsh comments and sometimes a hex was fired their way. The school was in something of a state of shock and disbelief.

Ron frowned, and shielded his eyes as the flames engulfed the log. 'Yeah, I think so,' he said, leaning back against the plush red couch and wriggling his toes. 'How should we do that?'

'Well, I was thinking,' he paused, the fire lighting up his face, 'actually, I have no idea.'

Ron laughed, ruffling his friend's hair. 'I've got no ideas either. Isn't that fact that she has very little friends now enough?'

'She hangs around with Neville now, and my god he's getting sick of her,' Seamus grinned, edging himself backwards as the fire spat out a large ember.

'Did you hear him last night?' Ron asked. 'He was ranting on about how bloody, what word did he use?' he stopped to think, 'oh yeah, he said that she was becoming really rather _irksome.' _

Seamus chuckled. 'God, I still don't understand why did she that to Harry and Cedric though,' he grinned. 'They're so bloody cute together.'

Raising his eyebrows, Ron looked at his friend questionably, who shrugged with a small smile on his lips. 'I dunno,' Ron said, musing, 'maybe she has a crush on Cho?'

'That's bloody insane, she's all moony over Krum,' Seamus reminded him.

'But I'm just saying, maybe she does,' suddenly his eyes lit up, he turned to Seamus with a proud smile on his face.

'What?'

'Do you think we should spread it all across the school that she does have a crush on Cho?'

Frowning, Seamus shook his head. 'Nah, that's child's play, we need something really big!' he said, waving his arms around to show how big really meant.

'We could get her expelled,' suggested Ron.

'That's just cruel.'

'Oh!' he said in excitement, 'how about we send her a howler?'

'Good one!' Seamus agreed. 'But we need something in addition to that.'

'Need our help, lads?' the twins had plunked themselves down either side of Ron. Seamus nearly giggled, three rows of red heads, it was quite an amusing sight.

'Yeah, we want to get Granger back,' Seamus said.

'We know,' George informed him, 'we were listening.'

'So much for privacy,' Ron muttered.

'Can it little bro, it's our job to eavesdrop on you,' Fred said, slinging an arm around his younger sibling. 'Anyway! The howler idea is quite nice, but you need something else.'

'We know!' Seamus and Ron chorused together. 'I thought you'd been listening in,' Ron added.

'And we have just the thing!' George said, continuing on from his twin's sentence, ignoring the comment before. He dove into his pocket and whipped out a small pink and purple sweet.

'What's that?'

'This,' said Fred 'is genius in the form of confectionary.'

'Yeah, but what does it do?'

'This side,' George pointed at the pink, 'will cause her, or anyone who eats its, to form great big-'

'Everlasting bogies!' Fred said excitedly. 'And she'll continuously babble non-stop for three days, it's something Lady Pomfrey can't cure.'

'That's all?' Seamus asked with an ounce of disappointment in his voice. 'I thought you guys would have thought of something better.'

'Ok,' Fred sneered. 'We have this,' he said holding up another sweet.

'What does that do?'

'She'll dance uncontrollably for five hours, and it also attracts flies and other insects to hover around her for a further three hours,' George said.

'And her hair will be a shocking shade of green and it'll be completely untamable,' Fred added.

'All those things from one nibble of candy?' Seamus asked amazed.

'That's brilliant,' Ron concluded.

'You'd better not tell Harry about this,' Fred told them. 'He's so bloody noble; he wouldn't let you do it.'

* * *

Harry lay on his bed after classes, and let his mind wander. He was the only one in the dorm, it was refreshing not having to worry about Neville and Dean, well mostly Dean, badmouthing him whenever he entering the room. He'd finally finished his homework, and was about to go down to the common room and join Seamus and Ron in front of the fire, when the dorm door slide slowly open. Harry pushed open the hangings around his bed (he'd been drawing every night since the school found out and placing silencing charms around the bed, because Ron had warned that he talked in his sleep), he nearly fell of the bed when he saw who had entered the room. It wasn't Ron, Seamus, Neville or Dean, or anyone in Gryffindor. It was Cedric.

'Harry, hi,' he said quickly, when he spotted Harry lying on the bed. He jumped up beside him and kissed his head. 'Dumbledore just told me that there is a special feast being held for the champion's tomorrow night.'

'What? Why?' Harry asked in confusion. 'The next task is over two weeks away, why now?'

'Dumbledore said it was because he wanted us to enjoy it now, rather than worry all the way through it.'

'Oh, makes sense,' Harry said. 'I was planning to start worrying on Sunday,' he grinned.

Cedric chuckled. 'The champion's sit up the front of the hall, at a table together,' he smiled, rubbing Harry's knee softly. 'Dumbledore told me that he is going to make a speech about acceptance.'

'What?' Harry asked, softly. 'Because of us?'

Cedric nodded, stroking Harry's scar. 'Yes, I think so.'

'Wait, when's this?'

'Saturday night, tomorrow,' Cedric told him.

'So it is fancy or anything?'

'Like dress robes fancy?' Cedric asked him, and continued when Harry nodded. 'No, I don't think so, just school robes.'

'That's a shame,' Harry said, wrapping his arms around Cedric's waist.

'Yeah, why's that?'

'Because you look amazing in your dress robes,' he smiled, placing a small kiss on Cedric's lips.

Cedric smiled into the kiss, and hugged Harry closer to him. 'So, will you go with me?'

'To the Champion's dinner?' he inquired. 'Is it a couple's thing?'

'No,' the older boy said. 'But I want to go with you.'

'Ok,' Harry said, blushing. 'How'd you get in?' he asked, realizing he didn't let him into the common room.

'Ginny Weasley let me in,' he said.

'Mm, I'm glad; I really wanted to see you.'

Cedric kissed him fiercely, rolling on top of him; Harry kissed him back, pressing up into his body. Cedric's dark hair flopped forward onto Harry's face, tickling him softly. He smiled as they pulled apart and ran his hands along Cedric's back, running his fingers over his spine. Cedric pulled Harry's school tie out were it was tucked down his sweater, and untied it draping it around his own neck. Harry shuddered as his fingers brushed his neck, dipping under his hands under the collar of his shirt. Harry kissed him, their lips locked with such intensity, that Harry heard Cedric moan quietly. Harry's hands moved down to Cedric's waist, and he then ran them up Cedric's chest, and sat up a little to kiss him on the neck. Cedric moaned happily.

Both boys heard the door creak open, Harry quickly disentangled himself from Cedric, but Cedric kept his hands down the younger boy's shirt.

'Oh, sorry,' Harry saw Seamus' head poking around the door, 'I just came up to get something from my trunk,' he said crossing the room quickly and grabbing a box of Chocolate Frogs. He gave Harry the thumbs up as he slipped from the room.

'Harry, I'd better go,' Cedric said, standing up.

'Do you have to go?' he asked softly, grabbing his tie and pulling him back down for a long and deep kiss.

When the kiss ended, Cedric was smiling, showing his perfect white teeth. 'Harry, I do have to go, got some ruddy homework that needs finishing. I love you,' he whispered, walking slowly towards the door and then exciting the room.

Harry smiled to himself, licking his lips that still tasted of Cedric. 'Oh,' Harry said sitting up, 'he still has my tie.'

* * *

Seamus and Ron sat in the library on Saturday afternoon just hours before the Champion's feast, holding the sweet that the twin's had given them. There was hardly a soul in the library even though rain was bucketing down outside. Apart from Professor Bins who had floated in, through Seamus, to get to the history of magic section. A startled Seamus had dropped the small green and orange sweet and had had to dive under the table for it, all the while the hawk-eyed librarian, Madam Irma Prince watched.

'You hold it!' Seamus said as he shoved the sweet into Ron's hand. 'I can't keep anything safe!'

Chuckling, Ron stuffed the sweet into a pocket of his robes. 'So, we'll do it tonight then?' he asked.

'Yeah, so everyone can see,' Seamus grinned widely. 'The Champion's feast! Everyone will be there, even her beloved Krum.'

'Thick as a bat he is!' Ron said cheerfully.

Seamus nodded his agreement. 'So what should we put in the howler?'

'I don't know,' Ron admitted. 'Something bloody dreadful.'

'Know any personal secrets of hers?' Seamus asked eagerly.

'No, no I don't,' he sighed. 'Great this is going to be harder then I thought!'

Seamus drummed his fingers on the desk stop, jumping when Madam Prince barked at him to stop.

'Maybe we could get Dobby to send it to her!' said Ron sitting bolt upright.

'Who is Dobby?' Seamus asked.

'A house elf, he's basically in love with Harry,' said Ron. 'Hermione's always been complaining about house elves and how little they get paid.'

'They don't get paid.'

'I know and that's what bothers her.'

'I think we should just send it ourselves, and put in what she did so the whole school knows,' Seamus said. 'That's the best idea.'

'Yeah, I think you're right, mate,' Ron smirked. 'She'll get it on Monday morning, breakfast time.'

* * *

'Ron!' Harry asked while he was rummaging through his trunk. 'Do you have a spare tie I could borrow, for tonight?'

'No, sorry I only the one,' Ron said, running a comb through his hair twice, and then flopping back on his bed. 'Why?'

'Because Cedric left with mine yesterday by mistake, and I need it.'

Seamus grinned and looked up from Dean's Football magazine. 'I saw him leaving with it last night,' he put the down the magazine. 'You know, you two are really cute together.'

Harry stared at Seamus, who disappeared behind the publication again. 'Uh, ok, thanks,' he said grinning, looking at Ron for an explanation, all he received was a shrug in response. 'Do you have a spare tie, Seamus?' he asked.

'Nope sorry, my spare got covered in potion mixture last Tuesday,' he stared down at the magazine again. 'You know, Football is bloody weird, Quidditch is so much better than Football, why the hell does Dean like this stupid game?'

'He'd better bring it with him then,' Harry said ignoring Seamus, closing the lid on his trunk and sitting on it. 'How long to go?' he asked nervously.

'Harry! Would you stop worrying,' Ron asked sharply. 'You're making me worried as well.'

'You don't have to sit up the front of the great hall, with everyone watching you!' Harry said, half yelling. 'And Dumbledore's going to make an acceptance speech, but it sounds like a pro-gay one instead.'

'What's the problem with that?' Seamus asked.

'Nothing I guess, it's good and all, but it's all because of me and Cedric being together.'

'So?' Ron mumbled, chewing on his nail. 'Nothing wrong with that, anyway you've done a good thing, you know? Sparked up awareness, people in school aren't afraid to come out anymore now that the Boy Who Lived is gay.'

Seamus laughed and piped up. 'You know that big Slytherin girl, Millicent Bulstrode?'

Harry and Ron flinched in recognition; she was uglier than a troll. 'Yeah, what about her?'

'She announced she was gay yesterday and then tried to feel up Hannah Abbot in the corridor!'

'Feel sorry for the poor girl,' Ron said.

'Bulstrode or Abbot?' Harry asked, cleaning his glasses.

'Abbot.'

'Yeah,' Seamus continued, 'apparently Hannah nearly fainted from shock.'

All three laughed at this and then Harry looked down at his watch and jumped to his feet. 'Come on!' he said, nearly shouting. 'We've got to go, starts in five minutes!'

Seamus and Ron eased themselves up from where they were sitting slowly, as if to tease Harry more. But Harry stormed out of the dorm ahead of them and down to the Great Hall.

The decorations, he noticed, weren't as splendidly down as the other feasts and that of the Yule Ball, but they were still colourful and festive. The dark Durmstrang emblem hung to the right of the hall, and all the Durmstrang students were milling about under it. The bright blue crest of Beaubatons hung to the left, and the students were lounging around under it as well. A large Hogwarts emblem hung proudly in the middle of the hall, and all the students from Hogwarts regardless of their houses were standing under it. Excited chatter filled the hall; everyone was talking, though they sounded more like chickens in a yard to Harry. He saw the table where he and the other champion's were going to sit. He swallowed; he was in plain view of everyone. The table was long and similar to the staff table, but only four chairs where behind it. Harry noticed, somewhat thankful for this that the champion's table wasn't on the raise platform like the staff table was; it was on the same level as the students tables.

'Harry!' he whirled around to see Dumbledore approaching him.

'See you later Harry,' Seamus and Ron muttered, jogging off together into the crowd of students.

'Harry, come and stand with the other champion's,' Dumbledore said, motioning to where they stood beside the special table allocated to them. 'Where's your tie?' he asked as Harry thanked him and began to walk towards them.

Shrugging in reply to the headmaster Harry walked briskly over to Cedric. Cedric pulled him into a hug, and handed him back his tie. 'Err, sorry,' he said, blushing a little. 'I forgot I still had it when I left.'

'It's ok,' Harry said, smiling.

'Please everyone take your seats please!' Professor Flitwick was moving through the crowds telling everyone to sit. 'Oh bother this,' he said as he passed the champion's. 'Sonorous,' he muttered, pointing his wand at his throat. 'CAN EVERYONE PLEASE SIT, PLEASE, YOU MAY SIT ANYWHERE YOU WISH, YOU MAY SIT WITH THE OTHER HOUSES AND WITH THE OTHER SCHOOLS, SIT PLEASE,' he repeated, and moved his wand from his throat. Harry had nearly laughed; the professor's voice was still squeaky even when magnified. He took his seat next to Cedric at the far end of the table, Fleur sat in the middle and Krum at the opposite end.

When the babbling had died down, Dumbledore stood up, Harry noticed that every staff member was present behind him; he turned around to face the headmaster as did everyone else in the hall. Dumbledore cast no charm to amplify his voice, he didn't need it.

'Welcome to the Champion's feast!' he said, even Dumbledore sounded excited. 'This is to honor the bravery and courage of our champion's! Many of you have been wondering why we are having this now and not after the third task or before hand, I'll tell you know. We are holding it now, because the nerves about the third task with probably start to set in soon enough, and we'd like for our champion's to enjoy themselves while they can. And we are holding this now, not after because it's a brilliant excuse for a good feeding,' he paused while the laughter died down. 'These four exceptionally talented young people sitting before me are brave, kind, courageous, forgiving, daring and most importantly persistent. Many of the challenges they have faced over the past few months have repetitively slapped them in the faces,' Harry nearly chocked at this and looked up and Dumbledore to find him smiling down at him and Cedric. 'But!' he continued, 'they continued on, and those seven traits are what make them champion's. Now! ENJOY THE FOOD!' he bellowed happily as he sat down, and began pilling roast potatoes into his plate.

Everyone stared down in wonder at the food that appeared before them. Harry heard Fleur and Krum talking to each other, and praising the variety of foods. Everyone was munching contently for some time before talking broke out again, Cedric slung his arm over the back of Harry's chair and kissed his cheek, smiling.

'You're in a good mood,' Harry said, grinning back, he'd never seen Cedric looking so dopey before.

'I'm always in a good mood when you're around, Harry,' he smiled. He picked up a plate of something Harry had never seen before, and couldn't even begin to describe what it looked like. 'Here, have some of this, it's really good!'

'What is it?' Harry asked, accepting the plate and spooning some beside his lamb chops.

'I don't know,' Cedric said. 'But it tastes nice!'

Harry cautiously tasted some, and he nodded as Cedric raised an eyebrow in question. The food tasted vaguely meaty but with a hint of some kind of vegetable. 'Yeah, that is good!'

Cedric smiled at him and slowly leaned down, planting a soft kiss on his mouth. Harry kissed him back, wrapping his arms around his neck. Suddenly half of the Great Hall erupted into cheers. Harry pulled away from Cedric looking shocked, they were cheering for them. Harry hid his face in Cedric's chest, blushing madly; he could hear Cedric laughing and knew he was blushing too. When Harry looked up only a second later he saw Fleur clapping approvingly beside them, and many Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and some Slytherin students were on their feet clapping and cheering, as where Beaubatons and some people from Durmstrang. Harry noticed that all of Ravenclaw stayed seated and so did Hermione and Draco Malfoy and his gang.

Dumbledore stood up. 'Shhh,' he warned, holding a finger to his lips. 'Can't you see you're embarrassing them?' he laughed and continued when the cheers and clapping died down. 'That brings me to my next point about acceptance, I understand some of you haven't been all that fair to two of our champion's, rude words, hexes and curses and snide comments have been fired, I warn you now this must stop,' he was about to continue when an ear splitting scream broke through the Great Hall.

Harry looked around for the source and saw Hermione standing up dancing some kind of jig, her legs splaying out around her, her hair had turned a bright shade of green and was standing up on end like she had been electrified. She ran, or rather danced from the hall was fast as she could, giggle and bursts of laughter followed her escape. Harry didn't spot Seamus and Ron giving each other a high five.

Dumbledore stared after Hermione for a second, and then asked Madam Pomfrey to find her and take her to the hospital wing. 'She must be allergic to something,' he said smiling out at the crowd. 'Never mind, I'm sure she'll be fine, where was I?'

He hadn't seemed to realize at all that what had just happened was caused by a student, none of the other teachers seemed aware of it either and they all continued eating and listening to the headmaster.

'Think we got away with it?' Seamus muttered to Ron.

'Yeah,' came his reply. 'Teachers hardly even realized that people don't have allergic reactions like that!' Ron didn't feel sorry for the humiliation he had caused Hermione at all. And neither did Seamus.

* * *

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	11. Fight Fire with Fire

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything related to Harry Potter.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory. 

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART ELEVEN**

'Ron!' Seamus cried, pulling his foot out from under Ron's. 'You were standing on my foot!'

'Oh, sorry Seamus,' he said quickly, grinning at his friend.

The two were watching Hermione sitting, blabbering away to an unfortunate Neville who looked as though he was about to fall asleep in his breakfast. The morning post was due to arrive shortly, and they were hidden behind the door to watch the spectacle.

'Look at her!' Seamus whispered to Ron. 'She looks so exhausted.'

'That's because she was up dancing all night,' he grinned.

The people who filled into the Great Hall for breakfast were giving them very odd looks, but neither boy cared they just wanted to watch. Ron was taller then Seamus so he was standing behind him, with his hands on his shoulders peering over his head and around the door. He was about a head taller than Seamus, and whenever he spoke his chin tickled the shorter boy's head. Seamus had already swatted him away at least twice, complaining about the funny feeling.

'Look!' Seamus cried excitedly, turning around and grabbing Ron's shoulder, pointing up at the ceiling. 'The morning post has arrived!'

They gazed around the door, breath caught in their throats … waiting. The drown owl dropped the red envelope onto Hermione's head, squawked and flew hurriedly away. Apparently the owl knew about the unpleasant surprise. She was still talking away to Neville as she reached up to grab the letter on her head. As she lowered to her eyes so she could examine, she nearly squawked like the owl in terror. Even though Hermione was muggle she'd had experience with howlers, Neville had received one from his Grandma and her voice had echoed around the hall like a series of bombs. Hermione picked up the letter and tried to leg it from the table as quickly as possible, but her legs were so sore from the pervious night that all she could handle was a spirited hobble. Seamus and Ron bit back guffaws of laughter. She didn't make out of the hall before the letter opened and a deep booming voice broke out.

Neither Ron nor Seamus had wanted to do the voice for the letter, as she'd surely recognize their voices and luckily Fred had volunteered to do it for them. He'd done a great voice, and Hermione couldn't possibly be able to recognize it.

'I KNOW WHAT YOU DID, YOU STUPID IMBECILE,' Fred's fake voice sounded out through the hall.

'Imbecile?' Ron asked Seamus. He hadn't been there when Seamus had written the howler.

'It sounded clever before!' Seamus hissed at him, motioning for him to shut it so they could hear the rest.

'HOW DARE YOU? HOW BLOODY DARE YOU? YOU TOLD HER, SPILLED THE SECRET TO CHO CHANG, AND COULDN'T KEEP YOUR LITTLE MOUTH SHUT. YOU DIM-WITTED GIRL!'

'Dim-witted?' Ron asked him again.

'It sounded good at twelve thirty last night ok!?'

They listened as the howler continued, but instead of being deep and frightening Fred had rounded off in a little squeaky voice, which he found quite comical. 'HERMIONE GRANGER RATTED ON CEDRIC DIGGORY AND HARRY POTTER,' and with a poof the howler crumbled into charred dust.

Hermione stared at it for several seconds, blinking. 'What the hell?' she said slowly, tears brimming her eyes. When the laughter started again she fled from the hall for the second time in twenty four hours. She streaked out of the hall, and right past Seamus and Ron, though she didn't see them.

When she was right out of sight, Ron clapped Seamus on the back. 'That was bloody brilliant,' he grinned down at Seamus.

* * *

Viktor lazily threw an arm around her shoulders and looked into Hermione's face. Something was wrong, she wasn't talking or studying, she was just sitting there staring at the blank piece of parchment before her. The library was deserted, not a single soul was in there as the weather outside was glorious. Not one cloud dotted the sky, and the sun beamed down strongly. Viktor could see students outside enjoying their lunch hour. He sighed, leaning back against the chair; Hermione could be so boring some times.

'Herm-own-ninny,' he said slowly, still working on the pronunciation of her name.

She barely looked for up her work, but whispered a short, 'yes?'

'Vould you like to go outside?' he asked, pointing to the window. 'It is a very nice day.'

'No thanks, Viktor,' she said still not taking her eyes off the parchment, she reached for her quill and dipped it in the ink, but still did not put pen to paper. 'I'd rather stay indoors.'

'But vhy?' Viktor asked, pulling his arm away from her chair, 'it is so nice outside.'

'Didn't you see what happened!?' Hermione asked angrily, throwing her quill down. 'Didn't you see what happened at the Champion's feast?!'

'Your hair went funny,' he said stroking it. Truth be told that he hadn't really being paying attention; he had been talking to Karkaroff and had only caught a glimpse of Hermione fleeing the hall. 'Vhy were you dancing?' he asked.

Crying out in indignation, Hermione stood from the table, slamming all her books back into her bag and failing to clasp the lid on the ink pot properly so it leaked through her bag. She stormed from the library muttering furiously about Viktor's lack of attention and care for her.

Viktor stared after her in confusion; he scratched his head, and stood to leave as well brushing down his robes. 'Vot did I do wrong?' he asked, smiling a little. Hermione's reaction had been highly unexpected, and he was quite shocked at her sudden departure. He shrugged at left the library, heading outside to find his friends. If he ever needed to find her again today, he would just follow the trail of ink she had left on the carpet.

* * *

The night descended on the castle like a thick blanket, the sun had been snuffed out and replaced by a glowing half moon. Harry sat on the edge of his bed staring out idly at the grounds through his window. He looked down and his watch briefly, before remembering that it didn't work and hadn't since his dip in the lake. He scowled, he only wore it out of habit and he'd really become quite attached to it, even though it was an old one of Uncle Vernon's. It wasn't that late, and he could hear Neville's dull snoring from the corner of the room, and Ron and Seamus talking in hushed voices. He hadn't seen Dean in days; Harry suspected he'd been sleeping in another dorm, away from Harry.

'Ron?' he said, after he'd had enough of trying to figure out what time it was, he stood from his bed and walked over to where Seamus and Ron where sitting comparing Chocolate Frog cards. 'Do you know what the time is?'

'Yeah,' Ron said picking up one of Seamus' cards and staring at it, he looked like he was checking for quality or something.

'Well,' Harry said, crossing his arms, 'could you tell me what time it is?'

'Oh yeah, sorry mate,' he grinned foolishly and stared down at his watch. 'It's ten past nine.'

'Ok,' Harry said, marching back over to his bed and swinging the invisibility cloak around him. 'See you later.'

Walking down the stairs and through the common room he saw Hermione sitting in chair by the fire, she was alone and she looked thoroughly upset. When she heard the door close, she looked up and seeing no one she automatically knew who it was.

'Harry?' she asked tentatively.

Harry didn't respond to her at all, but quickly crossed through the common room and out through the portrait, startling the Fat Lady a little. 'What, _who's there? _What?' she said nearly knocking her cup to the floor.

Walking briskly through the halls Harry thought of Hermione. Was he being harsh to her by refusing to speak to her under any circumstances? After all it had all worked out for the best between him and Cedric, so maybe he should apologize and they could become friends again. He thought back to what had happened on the night of the Champion's feast, that couldn't have been an allergic reaction, if it was Harry had never seen anything like it. _Ron and Seamus, _he thought. _Crap, they did that to her! _Too bad he hadn't felt in the slightest bit sorry for her as she'd run screaming from the hall. She'd got what she deserved.

Harry pulled the invisibility cloak off as he neared the kitchens, he saw Cedric waiting for him. Cedric nearly jumped when he saw Harry materialize out of no where. He walked over to him and hugged him, running his hands along the invisibility cloak Harry was carrying.

'You have an invisibility cloak?' he asked, as they walked to no where in general.

'Yeah, it was my dads he left it for me,' Harry replied grinning.

'Wow, would it hide both of us?' Cedric asked him, pulling it out of Harry's hands and holding it up under the light of a candle.

'If you bent down,' Harry said. 'You're too tall!'

Cedric grinned and bent over so he was the same height as Harry and then pulled the cloak over both their heads. 'Fancy a bath, Harry?' he asked, kissing his cheek.

* * *

Soon the bath was ready, steam rose from and bubbles decorated the top of the water like a fresh falling of snow. Cedric had started pulling his robes off; he blushed when he realized Harry was watching him. 'Boxers on or boxers off?' Cedric asked a little shyly, he was standing before Harry wearing nothing but his boxers, pale blue in colour. Harry breathed in sharply, Cedric was prefect.

Shrugging his shoulders, Harry blushed and pulled his eyes away muttering. 'I don't mind.'

'On, I think,' Cedric said his cheeks still rosy. He stepped into the water, and sighed happily as it cascaded around him. 'Are you coming in?' he asked Harry, turning to face him and resting his chin on the edge of the bath.

Nodding, Harry quickly pulled all his robes off, leaving of course his boxers on, and stepped into the warm water. He too sighed happily when he felt the water flowing over him, but giggled when he felt Cedric's arm around his waist pulling him onto his lap. Cedric wrapped his arms around Harry's body in a protecting way. Harry relished in the feeling of his half naked body pressing against him, Cedric's chest pressing against his back. He slid down a little, so he could rest his head against Cedric's chest. The two just sat in the warm water, hugging each other in prefect silence for a long time, Harry was beginning to fall asleep he was so comfortable and content when Cedric spoke.

'Harry, I love you,' the older boy whispered.

'I love you too, Ced,' Harry replied kissing his chest.

'Good.'

'Ced?' Harry asked a few minutes later.

'Mm, what?'

'Are you nervous about the third task?' Harry hadn't wanted to bring it up, but they were going to have talk about it sooner or later.

'Yeah, of course I am,' Cedric said, calmly. 'I don't know what we have to do, or anything.'

'I'm nervous too,' he said then added. 'For the same reasons as you are.'

'Harry, I'm glad the Goblet of Fire called out your name,' Cedric said.

'Why?' Harry asked a little surprised.

'Because otherwise I wouldn't have met you,' Cedric said. 'We'd met before I know, but if it hadn't been for this tournament, I would have only been able to say hello in the corridors.'

Harry grinned and turned around in Cedric's lap, wrapped his arms around the boy's waist and shoulders and kissed him tenderly. 'When you gave me the hint about the egg, and then met me in here, was that planned?'

Cedric blushed and pressed his forehead against Harry's. 'Yeah, it was, I was hoping you'd go there that night.'

'I was so thrilled that you were talking to me that day,' Harry grinned. 'I probably would have gone and lay on train tracks with my egg if you'd told me too.'

Cedric laughed and kissed him. 'You're so cute Harry, and gorgeous,' he added, kissing his shoulder.

Harry blushed. 'You're absolutely perfect, sexy, handsome, sweet, everything,' Harry said.

Cedric's cheeks turned crimson again and he pulled Harry into a long kiss.

* * *

Ron stood shaking with anger in front of Hermione, who for once was cool, calm and collected under the pressure of this immense argument that had been raging on for several minutes.

'Ron,' she said, breathlessly, 'I know you planned those things to happen to me! Why are you denying it, it was blatantly obvious someone close to Harry was behind it!'

'You bloody deserved it!' Ron said.

'For god's sake Ron!' Hermione yelled. 'You don't fight fire with fire!'

'What the hell does that mean?' Ron asked, confusion breaking through his anger. 'Of course you don't fight fire with fire, that's just stupid!'

'It's a Muggle expression – oh never mind!' Hermione said, her voice rising again. 'What you did to me was cruel and heartless,' she said, 'and you never should have done it!'

They stood staring at each other for a while, before Hermione glared at him and then left towards her dorm in a huff. 'You did the same thing to Harry!' Ron bellowed after her. 'Just in a more cunning and secretive way.'

Seamus, who had been standing at the entrance to the boy's dorm coughed as he walked down to stand beside Ron. 'You know,' he said looking up at the red head. 'I think she totally hates you, and possibly me right now.'

Ron grinned. 'You have a knack for saying the obvious.'

'R-Ron?' Seamus asked, wringing his hands together.

'Yup?'

'Do you think it would be ok if I kissed you now?' Seamus asked.

* * *

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	12. A Promise Kept

DISCLAIMER: I own none of these characters. I don't own anything related to Harry Potter.

WARNINGS: Slash between Harry Potter and Cedric Diggory. 

Please read and review!

**THE CHAMPION'S: PART TWELVE**

Harry sat shaking in the Great Hall, Ron and Seamus sitting either side of him. He dipped his spoon into the cornflakes before him and managed to spill half of the milk down his front; he flung his spoon down in disgust and picked up a single piece of toast instead. His whole body was shaking from nerves and felt like he was going to throw up. Looking around the hall at the other people eating, he saw a lot of sympathetic looks being thrown his way, and a few 'good luck's' were mumbled to him as people passed.

Today was the day of the third task, the final task, the task that would decide the winner. And he was more nervous then he had ever been in his life, his mind was flicking non-stop through all the worst scenarios that could happen to him. Harry and the other champion's had been told last night that the third task would be to find the Triwizard cup that had been hidden in the center of a maze. Harry had thought that had seemed easy enough, but when he'd sneaked a glimpse at the maze he'd received a foreboding feeling of terror. He had also sworn that he had seen a spout of fire issuing from deep inside the maze.

His stomach churned again, he felt as though he was going to throw up. When looking at himself in the mirror this morning he'd found he looked as pale, or perhaps even more so, than a ghost and there were large bags under his eyes from many sleepless nights leading up the task. Last night he'd visited the hospital wing and requested to be given a sleeping draught so that he could at least get rest before the event. Madam Pomfrey had told him that all three champion's had come and taken some, subsequently she was more then happy to give him some. But unfortunately, he had woken up in the early hours of the morning because the potion had worn of too quickly. Furthermore Harry had spent those few extra hours to worry and fret about it.

Turning around to see if Cedric had arrived for breakfast yet, Harry nearly fell of his chair because he was so tired. He wasn't even remotely up for this, he was certain Colin Ceervy could perform better than he would today. Finally, Harry saw Cedric emerged through a door that led into the hall flanked by his entourage, all of whom seemed to be whispering words of encouragement and support, but Cedric gave the impression that he was taking to heed to anything said to him. He looked half dead, which was how Harry felt. He watched as Cedric attempted to take a long drink of Pumpkin juice but only ended up slopping most of it onto his friend sitting next to him.

Cedric's bad appearance resulting in Harry becoming more nervous, he tried to run a hand through his hair to calm himself down but only caused his glasses to fall of his face. Harry noticed that neither Fleur nor Krum were present at breakfast this morning.

'Harry, you need to eat something,' Ron tried persuading him, 'there's only an hour before the task starts,' he efforts were entirely unsuccessful.

Harry must have given out a small squeak of terror because Seamus patted him reassuringly on the back. 'It'll be ok, Harry,' he attempted to grin, but he looked as half as nervous as Harry and dreadfully pale. Ron looked the same, he was even paler than usual, but this could have been because he and Seamus were staying up late together all most every night.

'Can you move over please Ron?' Cedric had come over to talk to Harry, and his voice was quavering and Harry noticed he was shaking too. Ron obliged and Cedric slid into the seat beside Harry.

In the weeks coming up the task he and Cedric had spent a lot of time together, practicing magic they thought might help them, though they never really did get much practice in. Most of their lesson resulted in the two kissing madly and groping each other. Neither Cedric nor Harry minded much, it was much more fun and took of the stress of the tournament. Though now Harry had wished he'd actually learnt something.

'How are you feeling?' Cedric asked, staring down at the piece of toast with an odd look on his face as though he expected the toast to violently attack him.

Harry groaned. 'I want to crawl into a corner and die,' he admitted, being very serious though.

Nodding Cedric gestured towards the food at the table. 'Have you eaten anything?'

'No,' he said beginning to shake from the nerves again. 'H-have you?'

Cedric shook his head. 'No.'

'I tried,' Harry said foolishly, 'but I was too nervous to keep anything still.'

'You look terrible,' he said looking at Harry.

'Thanks so do you,' he replied with a half smile. It was a good attempt at a smile, Harry though.

He rested his head on Cedric's shoulder, thankful for a few moments that were worry free, he closed his eyes and breathed in deeply. He was dimly aware of Cedric's hand on his knee, and felt himself begin to drift off. He was relieved; he wanted the sleep that he desperately needed so badly. But he shook himself awake; there was no point in falling asleep one hour before the task and in the hall that would just be awkward. And Cedric had nudged him in order to get his attention; Harry sighed and opened his eyes.

'What?' he asked, sleepily.

'We need to go down to the maze now,' Cedric said, his voice cracking slightly.

'But there is an hour before the task begins!' Harry said reluctantly.

'Dumbledore said to go down an hour before hand, Harry,' Cedric grinned. 'How come you never get any of these memos?'

'I don't listen because you always tell me anyway,' Harry replied, standing before Cedric and pulling him to his feet.

They walked down to where the Quidditch pitch previously been hand in hand, never forgetting the task that was before them. A stony silence broke out between them, this time the silence was actually slightly uncomfortable, where as many other silence's they had were peaceful and relaxing. Suddenly Harry who'd had enough, pushed Cedric of the path a little and kissed him firmly.

'Promise me you won't get hurt ok?' Harry asked, his eyes watering slightly.

'I'll promise if you will,' Cedric said, running his thumb along Harry's cheekbones and under his eyes so to get rid of the tears.

'Deal,' Harry promised. 'Should we shake on it?'

'No,' Cedric shook his head and leaned forward and kissed him, softly and first but the kiss became harder and Harry kissed him back. 'We kissed on it, ok?'

Harry smiled, and placed his hand in Cedric's again and together they walked down to the grounds.

* * *

Harry was standing before the entrance to the maze, tapping his wand anxiously against his hand, his nerves becoming stronger as the school filled into the stands set up around the maze. His mind was so preoccupied with uneasy thoughts that he barely noticed that he'd accidentally set fire to the hem of Professor McGonagall's robes. She didn't seem to mind though; she extinguished the fire with a torrent of water from her wand and strolled over to speak with him.

'Mr. Potter,' she said her voice stern but Harry though it had calming edge to it. 'Could you please refrain from tapping your wand like that, you just set fire to my robes.'

'Oh,' Harry said, he looked down at the scorched ends of her robes and nodded, 'yes, Professor, sorry.'

'Mr. Potter, stop being so nervous,' she instructed. 'You will be fine, just fine.'

When she had retreated and gone to speak with some ministry official Harry didn't recognize, he peered around the hedge and looked inside the maze. A pure white mist swirled around his entrance, and he was vaguely annoyed that he couldn't see any further than two feet before him, but his annoyance was quickly replaced by that nervous feeling that was never far away. He looked back around the hedge to see if he could notice anything more, Harry swore the mist had grown thicker; it was so dense now that Harry could barely see the next hedge. All of a sudden Harry saw a glow of orange flame, jutting out into the mist, his heart leapt into his throat, what could be waiting for them down there? When the abrupt burst of flame died down his nerves did not, if it was at all possible he was even more jumpy and erratic then he had been.

Without warning the loud voice of Ludo Bagman echoed around the stands and reached the champion's ears, all of whom looked uneasy as the sound of his voice was a reminder that the final task would begin very shortly. Harry barely heard what Bagman had to say, but he did hear the cheers and roars of the excited crowd. Harry looked towards the sky, the day was fine and there was a light breeze in the wind, he wanted to remember the feel of the wind on his face before he stepped in that maze. The words Dumbledore had spoken to them all last night had made him uneasy; he recalled the headmaster's exact words. '_Some lose their minds in the depths of the maze.' _Harry gulped wishing he hadn't thought of that.

The unsteady blast of Filch's cannon meant that the champion in the led had to step through in the maze; Harry remembered with distaste that that was him and Cedric. He stepped cautiously inside, ignoring the shouts and cheers that came from behind him. Harry gasped as the image of the stands and Dumbledore along with all the other teachers disappeared as the hedge joined forces with others and prevented his escape back out. Harry timidly stepped forward, he jumped when heard the second and third blasts of a cannon, meaning that Krum and Fleur had now entering the maze. He picked up his pace and began to run forward into the swirling mist. There was a peculiar smell present, and Harry couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was, but it wasn't comforting to his ever present and now growing nerves.

He ran around a sharp bend in the maze and crashed into Cedric, Harry hadn't grasped the fact that he'd screamed until Cedric pulled him into a hug and hushed him. Harry trembled in Cedric's arms for a few seconds until he heard Fleur yell at them.

'Please!' she said in an exasperating tone, as she disappeared behind another bush and ran onwards. 'Get on with ze challenge!'

Cedric hurriedly kissed Harry and they both said 'I love you' at the same time before running off in different directions. Harry hastily whipped the tears from his cheeks as he ran away from Ced.

* * *

When Harry had sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall thinking over everything that could go wrong today, he'd never imagined this would happened. This had been worse then the nightmares that had plagued him last summer.

Harry was laying in the dark of the hospital wing the memories from that day haunting him. He stared up at the ceiling, unblinking and unmoving, even though his muscles ached from not moving he simply didn't have the strength to lift a finger. He shuddered slightly when he remembered that graveyard, Voldemort, Wormtail and the Death Eaters whose faces he had seen so clearly. His arm ached where Wormtail had sliced it for the potion that would regenerate his master. Though Madam Pomfrey had completely cured the cut, Harry's arm still hurt badly. He'd seen the bundle in his father's former friend's arm and had feared for the worse, and the worse had come true. Voldemort had risen again, his eyes were red slits that gleamed malevolently and when ever Harry closed his eyes he could see them staring at him. His face was so inhuman Harry couldn't even see Voldemort's former self in him any more; Voldemort had managed to rid himself of his former identity wholly.

He had been terrified then, and he still was, he hadn't stopped himself shaking ever since he'd foot in that maze, he'd been so sure that it was a normal part of the tournament, that a winner would be chosen afterwards. Yes, he had won, but now he didn't want to have won. He gasped involuntarily as he remembered Voldemort reforming before his very eyes and calling his faithful Death Eaters to him. Harry bit back a scream of terror as he thought back on the duel he had with the Dark Lord, and how he was lucky to have escaped alive. He'd seen his mother, his father and countless other victims of Voldemort's reckless nature and cause. Harry had seen Wormtail cut off his own hand for the Dark Lord; he'd seen things he wanted to forget. This night would haunt him the rest of his life. He blinked back tears of horror and hate, he closed his eyes, but quickly opened them again as he saw the red eyes staring back at him. He scrunched up his eyes, and waited until the red stare vanished.

'Harry?' the red eyes of Voldemort flickered and then disappeared in his mind. The voice was calming and Harry felt himself smile and it seemed as though all fears, worries and problems were pushed to the back of his mind for the time being.

At least Cedric had kept his promise to him.

**End**

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PLEASE REVIEW! It only takes thirty seconds to review! I'd love to know what you guys think!

**Thank you all for reading, I'm sorry the story finished like that, so abruptly and all. But I will probably do an after Hogwarts fic about Cedric and Harry later. **

**I can tell you that Ron and Seamus did kiss and that they never made up with Hermione and a poor Neville had to spend his time being talked at and forced to study, but Dean eventaully came to senses when Fred, Lee and George got sick of him sleeping in their dorm.**

**Thanks so much for all the reviews and the great response the story has recieved! I really enjoyed reading your reviews and the PMs you sent to me!**


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